Food

These days, most of the fruits and veggies we buy at the grocery store are quite good. Sam O’Nella Academy looks back at how we got from produce that was hard to eat, lacking in edible bits, and downright weird, to produce that we discard simply for aesthetic reasons.

While we prefer pizzas that we can actually eat, we still enjoyed watching woodworker Kyle Toth as he created a pizza that only a termite or carpenter ant could enjoy. The pepperoni is made from bloodwood, the cheese is yellowheart, and the crust is hickory.

Here in the US, cotton candy is typically just a big fluffy pillow of spun sugar, but in China, it’s often turned into amazing works of edible art by street vendors. Watch as this candy chef in Chongqing, China turns sugar into an intricate multi-color flower. Oh the humanity at 8:11!

“A frothing, bubbling, cooking mess.” Townsends reads passages from an 18th century British sailor’s memoir that lists some of the things that they ate, and cooks one simple item from the list. It’s burgoo – boiled ground oatmeal served with molasses. Or pork and beef fat.

(PG-13: Language) Hot Ones closes out its eighth season with none other than the gorgeous and talented Scarlett Johansson. Watch her talk about The Jerry Springer Show, “Space Jams”, magic tricks, and more while trying to make it through the wings of death.

The Cone Guys make ice cream more of a snack with their unique gourmet ice cream cones. They come in four variants – there’s the original Pretzel Cone, the Chocolate Chip Cone, the M&M Cone and the Chocolate Cookie Cone.

Ice cream sammies are pretty yummy all on their own, but Epicurious shows us how to make them just that much better by stacking them together into a decadent mint chocolate layer cake with them. We suppose you could substitute cherry, orange, or almond extract.

Stop-motion animator Lawrence Becker of SamplerTimes Studios got his hands on a 40-pound block of sharp cheddar cheese. But rather than getting out the crackers right away, he decided to sculpt a model of one half of the duo of Wallace and Gromit before snacking.

(PG-13: Language) The 76ers’ two-way superstar Jimmy Butler gets buckets, but can he get through Hot Ones’ challenge? Watch the NBA star talk about wine, the difference between college coaches and NBA coaches, the infamous Timberwolves practice, and more.

(PG-13) Katherine Dey of Deviant Desserts makes realistic cakes and other pastries. She loves to make anatomical – sometimes of the naughty kind – busts, and even insects. She accepts custom orders.

Nowhere are KitKat candy bars more popular than they are in Japan. So we can think of no better place to see how the treats are made, then at the Nestlé Japan Kasumigaura factory. After viewing the whole playlist, we wondered if we just watched a Wes Anderson movie.

Binging with Babish shows us how to cook the Swanson, a turkey leg wrapped in bacon that Ron Swanson casually showed off in Parks & Recreation. As expected, it takes a lot to make just a couple of these bad boys, especially when turkey’s not in season.

The Atlantic shares Edwin Lee’s beautiful documentary, Wasabia Japonica. It’s about Shigeo Iida, a 75-year-old who’s an eighth generation wasabi farmer. Most “wasabi” is actually dyed horseradish. Iida’s crop is the real deal, and fetches up to $250/kg.

Kaci Hansen aka the Homicidal Homemaker shows us how to make a delightful cake that pays tribute to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. The yule log style roll cake features a pattern inspired by the pattern on the rug at the Overlook Hotel, along with a decorative axe.

The Splid is a combination of a teaspoon and a lid (and a glass container, since every Splid comes with one). It’s a quick way of dispensing salt, coffee and other dry edibles and ingredients without reaching for a fresh teaspoon every time.

(PG-13: Language) NBA and broadcast legend Shaquille O’Neal dropped by Hot Ones to talk about his relationship with Kobe, learning to manage his money, understanding sports press from both sides of the fence and more, while trying to finish the hot wings challenge.

Reusable straws are so much better for the environment than disposable straws. But they can be a pain to clean, and that’s not good for you. The Rain Straw solves that by having a design that forms an airtight seal when in use yet can split into two for cleaning.

Primitive Skate presents a collection of hoodies, tees, hats, pants, socks, and even comfy slides featuring the ubiquitous soy sauce found on tables at asian restaurants around the globe. Sadly, their soy sauce skate decks already sold out.

OGarden’s Smart indoor garden promises to be a low maintenance and relatively compact system. It holds up to 30 seedlings and up to 60 plants at once, ensuring a continuous harvest every 3 or 4 days. Its automatic watering system also warns you to low water levels.

Would you like fries with that? Master of retro-style gadgets Love Hultén shares one of his more whimsical creations – a handheld game system that looks like a cheeseburger. Unlike most of his creations, he shared a making-of video this time around.

Never leave the tiniest bit of Nutella behind with Dreamfarm’s ingenious flexible spoon that’s designed to get every last bit out of the jar. It’s also perfect for peanut butter and other stuff that clings to the walls of jars or bowls. Also available as a larger serving spoon.

For National Cereal Day, Post is making two limited edition day-starters which combine sweet and savory flavors. Choose from Chicken & Waffles or Maple Bacon Donut starting on 3/7/19 at Walmart. We’re not sure they’re part of a nutritious breakfast, but they sound tasty.

Designed by Rosie Upright for SUCK UK, these whimsical rolls of paper washi tape look like rolls of delicious sushi. We don’t recommend dipping them in soy sauce or wasabi, but they’re a fun decoration and conversation piece. Sold in a set of four 10m rolls.

Pop Chart’s mouth watering wall graphic depicts deconstructions of over 50 sandwiches from different cultures, from the peanut butter and jelly and sloppy joe to the banh mi and po’ boy. Measures 24″ x 18″ and available unframed, framed, or board-mounted.

While the traditional method of harvesting olives uses rakes to knock them off trees, we prefer this method from Afron Machinery, which involves surrounding the tree with tarps, then shaking the hell out of its trunk to release the fruit onto a sorting machine.

Apeel Sciences’ revolutionary coating slows down oxidation and water loss in fruits and vegetables, making food stay fresh for far longer. The non-toxic coating is made from a mixture of pulp, peels, and seeds that is dissolved in water then applied to the skin of produce.

The Peanut Butter Pump sucks peanut butter out of 40 oz. jars, even scraping the sides so nothing gets wasted. It has a ribbon-style nozzle for spreading on bread, and a stream-style nozzle for snacks. Its valves are removable for easy cleaning.

The guys from Toronto creative studio reactiv like to play with their food. In this lighthearted short, they imagine that edibles were actually used for playing various sports, and making quite the mess in the process.

Whether on a sammie with bacon, chicken and cheese, or in a spicy guac, we delight in our delicious avocados. But this tasty and nutritious natural treat might not even exist today if it weren’t for some prehistoric farmers who saved them from extinction. SciShow explains.

Macro Room’s time-lapse footage of ice cream bars and popsicles melting into the ground is simultaneously hypnotic and depressing, bringing on flashbacks to that time we dropped a bomb pop on the ground at age five and cried for an hour.