food

Pittsburgh

Posted by _tango! on October 31, 2006
Posted in: experience, food, information, me, thoughts. 7 comments
pittsburgh

I made a quick visit to Pittsburgh recently and found it to be a little hidden jewel bound for a boom in growth, a nice variety of food (though maybe not in the sushi department), tons of sports fans(tons!), big hills, many bars, a few great museums, and an eclectic crowd of students though they seemed to stay on the campus side of the city. The cost of living is low, and many developments seemed to be popping up. I originally thought the industrial town would be smoggy, but not much smog was to be seen. The locals were friendly, though I have this weird feeling if you did not watch football (Steelers) they would give you a grin.

The town is filled with fleets of commercial businesses in the health care, financial, and retail departments, and a spoof of tech companies crawling in. My journey was short, but a nice glimpse of a town I’d never known about besides the many movies that take place there. One local I spoke to said there were 3 things to do in Pittsburgh: Eat, Drink, and watch Sports. I have my own thoughts but I’ll just post up a few pics after the jump…

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Pop!Tech2006: extras

Posted by _tango! on October 26, 2006
Posted in: design, entertainment, experience, food, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, me, Poptech, tech, thoughts. 10 comments
poptech2006

Pop!Tech 2006 was an amazing brain safari filled with big ideas, great conversations, and a gathering of curious open minded people from all disciplines and places. I’d usually post tons of pics and detailed descriptions, but other guru bloggers have done this timing favor, a very detailed textual blog by Ethan Zukerman, or a more visual dose by core77. Hopefully they’ll post all of the webcast lecture online much like TEDtalks soon. Pictured above is Rodrigo and Gabriela rockin out the house!!!

Read those blogs for the full details, and hit up Flickr for some images, otherwise, I’m going to post my experience outside of all the great lectures after the jump with a bunch of pics:
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PopTech2006: Dangerous Ideas

Posted by _tango! on October 18, 2006
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, experience, food, information, inspiration, me, Poptech, tech, thoughts. Leave a Comment
poptech2006

I’m zippin off to the PopTech Conference in Camden Maine for an amazing idea gathering. I’ve heard it’s very comparable to GEL or TED and based on the line-up of speakers, I can see why. If you think your missing out…not at all because all the freakin speakers will be webcast LIVE here!!!

Here’s a partial list of speakers that I’m familiar with though the unknowns are the ones that usually captivate me:

– Chris Anderson: Long Tail, Editor and Chief of Wired Magazine.
– Stewart Brand: Long Now Foundation and Global Business Network.
– Blaine Brownell: Architect, sustainable building advisor, and materials researcher.
– Homaro Cantu: Chef, Scientist, Artist.
– Richard Dawkins: The world’s most influential thinker on evolutionary biology
– Brian Eno: musical legend, innovator, visual artist, and pop icon.
– Juan Enriquez: Futurist, author of As the Future Catches You
and The Untied States of America.
– Ze Frank: This dudes amazzzingly funny.
– Kevin Kelly: Technology Visionary. Has a great blog as well.
– Bruce Streling: Futurist, science fiction author, jounalist and critic.
– Craig Venter: Dedicated to human genomic research.
– Will Wright: Creative force behind the groundbreaking Sims franchises and Spore!!.

To make up for the week, some goodies:
– spider on a bill.
– Real money is magnetic!
– Interesting discussion about Emotional Design and Cultures.
– Jumpcut– online video editor(Yahoo bought recently)
– Chris Angel: levitation trick revealed!

Sushi Pillows!

Posted by _tango! on October 17, 2006
Posted in: art, food, fun, inspiration, me, style, thoughts. 4 comments
sushi pillow

Sushi Pillows!!! Yuuuuummm!!!(I’m drooling) As much as I LOVE sushi, I’d go crazy if I had a few of these in my room and probably munch on them in my sleep, otherwise, I love the details in these oh so oishii pillows. I wished they had sashimi pillows and soy sauce blankets with green wasabi sheets to bunch up into balls! Maybe textured dark green sheets to roll yourself into a sleeping seaweed body roll! Look out for sushi costumes for the upcoming halloween! more pics after the jump…

via byCindyandMel

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Instructoart and Wordless Pancakes

Posted by _tango! on September 26, 2006
Posted in: art, design, food, fun, inspiration, style. 3 comments
intructioart dogs

I love it when stories, instructions, or just about anything gets communicated through the universal means of images and as little text as possible. The world of information visualization does exactly this by data mining the billions of bytes of data that none of us can see or prefer not to rumble through to figure out and visually communicating it to us mindless humans.

Anyhow, back to the basics, such as cooking! I’m the type that loves to cook, but hate to read while squinting my computer burned eyes onto poorly printed out inkjet recipes. I’m also the type that loves those emergency illustrations on airplane pockets. So by all means, I LOVE this project for a “wordless pancake recipe” which illustrates every step for making yummy pancakes. It reminds me of a wonderful book called “Instructoart” by Matthew Vescovo, which is an incredibly amusing must buy book. Check out their site for a musically and visually satisfying glimpse of Matthews book here. I’ll post some of my favorite pics from Matthews gallery after the jump!

Buy his book here!
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INKOS: Healthy White Tea

Posted by _tango! on July 30, 2006
Posted in: brand, food, information, me. 5 comments

Inko healthy white tea lycheeI was browsing for some Honest Tea at Wholefoods and stumbled across Inko’s Lychee flavored white tea instead. I’m a sucker for Lychee, hence gravitated towards the bottle, made sure it wasn’t one of those over flavored or sugar saturated ripoffs, then read the rest of the info. Apparently this is the ONLY white ice tea available in the market, which is also one of the most rare tea leaves in the world. There are tons of health bennies you can read about on their webpage, but I’m just going to say this drink rocked! Not to sugary, very crispy, and a delightful satisfying tea flavor with a zest of lychee goodness. Hopefully I can get my hands on a case of these drinks to pass around to friends at my next gathering.

ilove Magazine Water Bottles

Posted by _tango! on July 27, 2006
Posted in: brand, food, ideas, thoughts. 10 comments

ilove water bottleCall it a magazine, call it a bottle of water, or just plain call it a refreshing idea in between. “ilove” is the first gossip magazine for women on a bottle of water. Each month several 32 page issues are attached to bottles which allows women a quick update on several topics while they enjoy their beverage….it’s somewhat like a daily blog on a bottle of water. Their hopes are to make these monthly issues weekly, hence, 6+ issues a week, with a version targeting the male audience soon.

I’m somewhat skeptical of this idea, but I’ll admit, I was a sucker for those laffy taffy wrapper jokes, those snapple wisdom caps, games on the back of cereal boxes, and those many fun facts and stories on several other food+beverage products. Adding this content might be a nice way to jazz up the value in this competitive world of bottled water, and infact, I’d probably spend a few extra pennies if the content was good, fun, addictive, and useful. Promotionwise, I’m sure they can strike up some other incentives, much like soda cans did with amusement parks ($10 off, when you still have to spend 65$). Anyhow, for sure in this world of time management it’s always great to get snippets of news on the go anywhere!

Bong Vodka Artist Series

Posted by _tango! on July 26, 2006
Posted in: art, brand, food, information. 11 comments

bong vodka

Bong Vodka has just launched a sensational series of artist bottles in collaboration with several artist. These limited edition bottles and graphic boxes will be available towards the end of August in select cities. If you would like to get involved, and perhaps strut your artistic abilities on these beautiful bottles, head over to Spirit Of The Brand and get involved! Their site has a pretty sweet music cast as well.

I love it when seemingly ordinary objects get artist involved to spicen up their products to new levels of desirability! Theses bottle are plain beautiful and I’ll be craving to get my hands on them once they come out!
(thanks josh)

Adagio Tea Bags

Posted by _tango! on July 7, 2006
Posted in: experience, food, ideas. 1 comment

adagio tea bagJust when I thought there were no more inventive ideas in presenting tea bags comes adagios blooming tea bag, which, as the title says, blooms right before your eyes as you pour some hot water into a clear cup of boiling water. I’ve yet to actully witness this magic unfold, but I could imagine the delightful little touch and smile it gives to the tasty tea experience.
via NotCot

Dinner in the Sky

Posted by _tango! on July 6, 2006
Posted in: entertainment, experience, food, ideas, thoughts, wacky. 3 comments
dinner in the sky

“Dinner in the Sky” is a unique and a rather bizarre breathtaking experience taking place on a suspended table for 22 guests hovering 50 meters above the ground by a crane. Each guest is strapped down to a roller coaster like seat then hoisted up for one chilling, perhaps frightening exciting experience of their life. If you happen to be one of the lucky participants in this event, I’d hope you’re not the type that drops their utensils much. I’d also wonder about the bird’s flying around or those bathroom breaks. Otherwise, get your camera, strap on your shoes, add a strap to your cell phone, and enjoy!
via springwise

Ferran Adria: elBulli

Posted by _tango! on July 4, 2006
Posted in: art, design, food, information, inspiration. 2 comments
elBulli

I just finished watching an amazing documentary on the travel channel called “Decoding Ferran Adria” which had me drooling over the visually magical and breathtaking experimental dishes served at the world famous restaurant elBulli and chef/owner Ferran Adria. The mind-blowing combinations in ingredients and creative presentations are truly original and an experience like no other. To make reservations for this restaurant is said to be over a year long. elBulli is only open for 6 months out of the year as it takes the other 6 months to travel, experiment, and come up with new concepts each year in their ultra modern controversial innovation foodlab. Not only do the dishes taste sensational, but the process in creating and manipulating the ingredients to their extreme is astonishing! One fact that I loved was that Adrias lab team consist of a Chemist, Industrial Designer(wohooo!), and several other chefs.

For some pictures of their beautiful dishes check out this flicker set, this one, or this website review. The pictures only give you a glimpse of the real magic that was captured in the video which flooded your mind with simple informational elements that just mystified and surprised you. I couldn’t track many videos online, but there were a few short ones here and here. If anything, I’d say go find that episode, buy it, watch it, drool, and perhaps buy his visually stunning book filled with several images and recipes. Otherwise, if you find yourself in Cala Montjoi Spain, outside the city Roses, about 2 hours north of Barcelona, go there, eat, and make people like me jealous!

More drooling  pictures from a recent visit via chocolateandzucchini