Martin Yan carves a chicken in 18 seconds! from Jaden Hair on Vimeo.

Source: http://steamykitchen.com

Gold, silver, and bronze medals were won in 91 categories of beer judged in the 2008 World Beer Cup competition held this past weekend in San Diego, CA. Additionally, the five best breweries in the world were named, including the first woman brewer ever to win this award! I’ll share the list of best brewers and then a more-or-less randomly chosen top 10 of the 273 individual winners of the 2008 World Beer Cup.

See the winners HERE

Kittiwat Unarrom has a master’s degree in fine arts and creates bruised and battered heads, feet and other internal organs at a bread shop in Thailand. He started using his skills and made sculptures out of bread. This came naturally to him because his family runs a bakery. The bread is made out of dough, raisins, cashews and chocolate. He just adds his own touch to the finished product.

See more HERE

Chicago’s gourmands got some good news this week when the city’s two-year-old ban on foie gras was officially lifted. The repeal was a defeat for animal rights groups who pushed to ban the French delicacy because it is made from the fatty livers of geese and ducks that have been force fed.

But the pricey dish is not the only traditional food that’s restricted (or shunned) around the country because of health or political concerns. Here are some other controversial gourmet favorites, from maggot cheese to haggis, that you may or may not be able to find on a menu near you.

Read the rest of this article HERE

To promote his new book Super Sushi Chef Ken Kawasumi has attempted to recreate one of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflower paintings using only raw fish.

Source: http://www.oishiioishii.net/sushi-sunflowers

It’s not every day one lives to half a century, but if you do, make sure the food makes you glad that you made the journey.

Photography by Peter Dean Rickards

More Julius cooking…

Escovitch snapper and steam parrot fish
Julius’ satay jerk chicken

The world is getting fatter. One billion people are overweight, and 300 million of those are clinically obese.

The search is always on for replacements for those things that, eaten in excess, make us obese – fatty and sugary foods. There is no miracle pill that can replace either. Nearly four decades ago one man came close to providing a tablet that could reduce our love of sugar. In the 1960s, Robert Harvey, a biomedical postgraduate student, encountered the miracle berry, a fruit from west Africa which turns sour tastes to sweet.

Read the rest of this article HERE.

The basic principle relies on cooling by evaporation. When water evaporates it draws energy from its surroundings which produces a considerable cooling effect. Evaporative cooling occurs when air, that is not too humid, passes over a wet surface; the faster the rate of evaporation the greater the cooling. The efficiency of an evaporative cooler depends on the humidity of the surrounding air. Very dry air can absorb a lot of moisture so greater cooling occurs. In the extreme case of air that is totally saturated with water, no evaporation can take place and no cooling occurs.

Generally, an evaporative cooler is made of a porous material that is fed with water. Hot dry air is drawn over the material. The water evaporates into the air raising its humidity and at the same time reducing the temperature of the air. There are many different styles of evaporative coolers. The design will depend on the materials available and the users requirements.

Read the rest of this article HERE