Food News Roundup: Robots Can Now Make Sushi
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Future and past collide this week with new innovations in sushi-making and utensils, and the history of gold-rush eats. We also tickle our art bone with comics and animated love for pizza.
Jiro dreams of iSushi
The future is now, and Kawasaki's latest invention won't have you worried about any gloved hands. The motorcycle makers have created a sushi-assembling robot and recently debuted it at a showroom, according to Gizmodo Australia. The two-armed robot picks up a piece of rice with one arm and squeezes wasabi from a tube and tops it off with a piece of fish with the other arm, making the perfect-looking supermarket nigiri. We're sure the sushi bot won't be raking up any Michelin stars or James Beard Awards soon, so all sushi chefs won't have to worry about getting replaced.
Panda Express is "chork"-full of new chopsticks
In an attempt to help people out with their chopsticks skills, Chinese-American fast food chain Panda Express will be introducing the "chork" to its patrons, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The red chopsticks feature fork prongs on top and resemble beginner's chopsticks with cute silicone animals that connect the sticks. While the contraption seems like it would be a great help to chopstick novices, spork sticks, the same concept but with a spork in place of the fork, would have really taken the idea to a whole other level in terms of utensil capabilities.
Mining for golden eggs
Gold-rush miners in San Francisco were known to eat stews and cornbread, but NPR reports that the miners also came across an egg rush. According to NPR, chicken farms weren't as rampant from 1849 to the mid-1860s, and the City by the Bay was described as a "protein-hungry town." Some gold miners found a solution in murre eggs that were found on the Farallon Islands, 28 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. The murre, a bird that looks like a penguin that can fly, lays blue-speckled and pointy-tipped eggs with red yolks that are double the size of a chicken egg. The birds would lay their eggs in these dangerous, skeletal cliffs where the miners would harvest their eggs and then sell them to restaurants and grocery stores. Competitors started to harvest eggs as well, which led to a fatal gunshot to one man's belly, which then lead to the courts banning egg collecting by anyone other than lighthouse keepers on Farallon Island. Soon, the first chicken farm in Petaluma (about 40 miles south of San Francisco) opened, and the murre eggs were no longer needed.
How long will Mayor McCheese last?
Backstories and prequels are hot thanks to the likes of Better Call Saul and X-Men: First Class. But have you ever thought about where McDonald's Mayor McCheese came from and where he went? Cartoonist Lucie Ebrey turned her theory into a series of comics for A.V. Club titled "The Ballad of Mayor McCheese." In the bittersweet comic, McCheese is created by the McScientists as a publicity stunt. When public reaction turned sour, McCheese's contract was terminated. The comic follows McCheese's search for his raison d'être. The final chapter of the series was published on Sunday.
Pizza is life
Speaking of raison d'êtres, making pizza for hungry customers is an excellent one. Artist Victoria Vincent animates a short, monotonous story about a pizza maker, Jess, who says making these pies saved her live and is a reason to wake up in the morning. Reminiscent of Tina Belcher of Bob's Burgers, the triangle-haired character shares her pizza-making passion with a friend and his video camera. Watch the video below.
Pizza movie from Victoria vincent on Vimeo.