Saturday, January 29, 2011

World’s Most Bizarre Restaurants

If you’re like me, dining out is an experience unto itself. The food, the ambience, your fellow diners, all of these items combine to make eating out a memorable experience. Yet there are some restaurants, where the ambience overtakes the food, where the food is actually secondary to the experience. These are truly some of the most bizarrest restaurants in the world:

Dans Le Noir – Paris, Moscow, London

Dans le Noir means “in the dark” in French, and that is exactly how you eat at this restaurant which can be found in Moscow, Paris, and London. According to one review: “Nothing can prepare you for the uniqueness of Dans Le Noir. It works like this; you meet in the tall-ceilinged entrance bar, put your phones and anything else that might emit light in a locker, then order from the ‘surprise’ menu where you don’t know what you’ll get.

Eternity Restaurant – Poland
The coffin restaurant, called Eternity, is the work of a funeral parlor in the town of Truskavets near the Polish border. The undertakers hope that their restaurant will be confirmed as the world’s biggest coffin, attracting tourists to a region best known for its mineral-rich bathing waters.

Morbid diners can browse the funeral paraphernalia before ordering from a menu that includes “Nine Day” and “Forty Day” salads – named after local mourning rituals – and an ominous-sounding dish called “Let’s meet in paradise”. Single candles on the tables contribute to the funereal mood.

Dinner In The Sky – Brussels

Suffer from vertigo? Then this restaurant is definitely NOT for you! Dinner In The Sky is for people who expect more from their restaurants than four concrete walls and a solid floor. Instead, diners perch around a massive table, which is suspended from a crane high up in the air. It sounds completely insane, but as the most unusual – and entirely legal – way of getting high over dinner, it is the new must-do experience for the super-rich and adventure-hungry who yearn for something a little more extreme at mealtimes.

Although based in Belgium, the “restaurant” can be driven to any destination in the world. There have already been dining events in Paris and Brussels, while New York and Niagara Falls are on the agenda.

Modern Toilet – Taiwan

While most restaurants probably prefer that you not think about the final destination of the food you’re eating, imagining you’re unable to avoid drawing parallels with their product, Modern Toilet Restaurant revels in the concept. You might think it’s totally gross, but as the site says, “In an age where creative marketing is king, even feces can be turned into gold!”
The website chronicles the chain’s story. The Modern Toilet legend began where all great ideas begin – on the porcelain throne. The unnamed soon-to-be-entrepreneur was struck by inspiration and soon opened the first location under the demure name ‘Marton Restaurant’.
Serving only desserts with a decidedly fecal look turned out to be more exciting to the general public than it may have been presumed to be, and soon Modern Toilet was born. Every customer sits on a stylish acrylic toilet (lid down) designed with images of roses, seashells or Renaissance paintings.

Everyone dines at a glass table with a sink underneath. The servers bring your meal atop a mini toilet bowl, you sip drinks from your own plastic urinal (a souvenir), and soft-swirl ice cream arrives for dessert atop a dish shaped like a squat toilet.

Nyotaimori Restaurants – Japan
Nyotaimori, “female body presentation”, is a service allowing restaurant customers to eat from the skin of a naked woman. Apart from her crotch, which is usually covered with some kind of garnish, the model’s modesty depends on the (temporary) position of the food on her body.

Aside from the obvious attractions of salivating over a nubile body, it is claimed that nyotaimori warms the food to body temperature. Apparantly, this allows the diner to focus on the texture and taste, rather than its temperature. R-iiight.

Dinner in a Hospital – Taipei
In Taipei, the line: ‘Do you like hospital food?’ doesn’t constitute a threat but an invitation to dinner. Your surreal experience starts with the name, D.S. Music Restaurant, which in no way hints at what’s actually inside. At the DS hospital-themed restaurant, customers order ‘medicine’ from a menu, which is then served from a drip at the table

Undersea restaurant – Maldives

For those of you that have a fear of diving there is an alternate way of experiencing the sea life, vibrant coral and the crystal blue waters of the Indian Ocean. Why not kill two birds with one stone and take in the breath- taking panoramic under water views while enjoying the delightful Maldivian cuisine?
Ithaa, which means pearl in Dhivehi, is a mostly acrylic undersea restaurant secured five metres below sea level at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island in Rangalifinolhu, Maldives.
The five-by-nine meter restaurant has a capacity of fourteen people and is encased in R-Cast acrylic which is a transparent acrylic roof offering 270° panoramic view. Ithaa’s entrance is a spiral staircase in a thatched pavilion at the end of a jetty.

These are cakes? Great examples of creative bakery

At the Highland Bakery in Atlanta GA these amazingly detailed cakes are made by Karen Portaleo. She got inspiration to be a cake decorator one day when she noticed that the cakes in her friend’s bakery didn’t have any creations. With a background in clay sculpturing she taught herself how to create spectacular decorations for cakes.

Portaelo has made cakes that look like a giant octopus, Darth Vader, a rhino and many other. Speaking of being creative with food, check out how food can be transformed into landscapes for tiny human figures.

Weirdest Animal Parts People Eat

Eating new and interesting food is all a fun part of life. Experiencing a variety of dishes and tastes can be an epicurean delight; however what if you were served the tongue of a duck rather than the breast, or perhaps the nose of a moose- would you still be excited? People all around the world eat different animals, strange insect meals, and unusual dishes. Below are a few of the weirdest animal parts people eat and somehow enjoy, forgive me, but I think I’ll pass on the rocky mountain oysters!

Seal Flipper Pie

Known as a delicacy in some parts, this traditional Canadian dish is made from the flippers of young seals. A hearty meat pie that is commonly found at grocery stores and restaurants in the Newfoundland area, seal flipper pie has quite a few fans, yet it still seems a weird animal part to be munching on.

Duck Tongues

Duck Tongues are another more commonly found and eaten dish in many parts of the world. A simple delicacy, duck tongue are said to be positively addicting with a crispy outside and a soft buttery/fatty interior that melts in your mouth. Still, I just can’t help but think about soft and cute baby ducklings.

Whole Sheep’s Head

n many areas throughout the world you may come across a number of sheep’s head dishes, such as soup, or just the head boiled or smoked. Many times the sheep’s head is fully intact with the eyes, tongue, and even brains. The eyeballs and tongue in particular are known as delicacies.

Reindeer Fat

Of all the parts of an animal, eating the fat from one of them really seems like the most unappealing. However, many Eskimos seem to disagree. They will take the fat from a reindeer and mix it with seal oil and some wild berries to enjoy an unusual dessert known as Eskimo Ice Cream. No thanks!

Warthog Anus

The Namibian Warthog anus dish is fortunately not all that commonly served. Just thinking about eating the butthole of any animal makes me want to regurgitate a bit, but I suppose if you enjoy gnawing on chewy anus, then the warthog is the way to go.

Goat Fetus

This unusual dish of goat fetus is usually only eaten on the rare occasion of a pregnant goat being slaughtered. This meal is considered to have medicinal value, especially for pregnant women.

Chicken Feet

Eating the foot of an animal just seems pointless, especially chicken. There are long toenails attached to a skinny little cartilage foot and people seem to enjoy gnawing on them like popcorn or something- gross. I suppose this is along the same lines as pickled pig’s feet- another repulsive meal I will pass on.

Lamb’s Brain

Some say it’s risky, others say not so much, either way eating the brains of an animal has been and still seems to be somewhat popular in many countries throughout the world. A well-liked meal is the lamb’s brain sandwich- deep friend and placed between two slices of bread.

Bull’s Testicles

I am not quite sure who first thought it was a good idea to eat the bull’s testicles, but they seem to be delicacy of sorts for many. Mostly served deep fried as an appetizer and known as Rocky Mountain Oysters, this dish turns little men into cowboys and little girls into women with facial hair. All jokes aside, you can also find lamb and pig testicles make a popular snacking dish as well.

Moose Nose

The 25 Most Bizarre Phobias

Spiders and heights can send a shiver down most people’s spines, but what about flowers and children? For some people, those things can be the root of phobias. Sound weird? Just wait — check out some of the most bizarre phobias our friends from the OnlineDating Blog have collected.

50 Fun Toilet Facts

Toilets. Everybody needs one, yet no one likes to talk about them. Well, following are fifty fun facts about the crapper, the loo, the john, the TOILET!:

1. The average person spends three whole years of their life sitting on the toilet.

2. The toilet handle in a public restroom can have up to 40,000 germs per square inch.

3. The film “Psycho” was the first movie to show a toilet flushing – the scene caused an inpouring of complaints about indecency.

4. Pomegranates studded with cloves were used as the first attempt at making toilet air-freshner.

5. Hermann Goering refused to use regulation toilet paper – instead he bought soft white handkerchiefs in bulk and used them.

6. Over $100,000 US dollars was spent on a study to determine whether most people put their toilet paper on the holder with the flap in front or behind; the answer: three out of four people have the flap in the front.

7. King George II of Great Britain died falling off a toilet on the 25th of October 1760.

8. The first toilet cubicle in a row is the least used (and consequently cleanest).

9. An estimated 2.6 billion people worldwide do not have access to proper toilet facilities, particularly in rural areas of China and India.

10. The toilet is flushed more times during the Super Bowl halftime than at any time during the year.

11. 90% of pharmaceuticals taken by people are excreted through urination. Therefore our sewer systems contain heavy doses of drugs. A recent study by the EPA has found fish containing trace amounts of estrogen, cholesterol-lowering drugs, pain relievers, antibiotics, caffeine and even anti-depressants.

12. While he didn’t invent the toilet, Thomas Crapper perfected the siphon flush system we use today.

13. In a 1992 survey, British public toilets were voted the worst in the world. Following quickly behind were Thailand, Greece, and France.

14. An average person visits the toilet 2500 times a year, about six-eight times a day. You spend about three years of your life in the toilet!

15. There are toilet associations worldwide promoting toilet education and culture.

16. Chinese Emperors first felt the need for something to use to clean themselves and thus they ordered the first ever toilet paper in AD 1391. Each sheet of toilet tissue was then two feet by three feet.

17. In 1890, the Scott Paper Company manufactured toilet paper on a roll, much as we know it today.

18. The first time there were separate male and female toilets were at a posh party in Paris in 1739.

19. Here are some words used for the loo: powder room, lavatory, outhouse, ladies, convenience, washroom, men’s room, bathroom, dunny, bog, khazi, gents, garderobe, necessary, women’s room, restroom, potty, privy, the smallest room, cloakroom, latrine, place of easement, water closet (WC), john, can, little girls’ room, little boys’ room, throne room, facilities, House of Honor (by the ancient Israelites) and the House of the Morning (by the ancient Egyptians).

20. Most toilets flush in the key of E flat.

21. World Toilet Day takes place on November 19 of each year.

22. We use an average of 57 sheets of toilet paper a day.

23. One-third of all Americans flush the toilet while they are still sitting on it.

24. 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.

25. The first toilet ever seen on television was on “Leave It To Beaver.”

26. In 1996, President Clinton passed a law on toilet paper, taxing each roll six cents and increasing the price of the product to thirty cents per roll.

27. The average desk harbors 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat.

28. Car steering wheels carry more than twice as many germs as a toilet seat.

29. Urine on the toilet seat–athough disgusting, is a nearly sterile liquid.

30. The faucet handle in most bathrooms at work have 400 times more germs than the toilet seat.

31. There are 333 squares of toilet paper on a roll.

32. The standard size of a sheet of toilet paper is 4.5″ by 4.5″.

33. In 1890, the Scott Paper Company manufactured toilet paper on a roll, much as we know it today.

34. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

35. Advice in one book suggests that a person exit a public restroom stall immediately after flushing, since “fecal matter” can fly twenty feet into the air when flushed.

36. Deriving in 1828, the original meaning of toilet, or toilette, is of French origin meaning the “act of washing, dressing, and preparing oneself”. As the years went by, the word evolved into actually being the room or facility in which one arranges their toilet. In modern days, toilet refers to the plumbing fixture that one might use in the “bathroom”, with “bathroom” now describing the facility one would go to for the purpose of using the toilet or lavatory.

37. New Yorker Joseph C. Gayetty produced the first packaged bathroom tissue in the United States in 1857. The Gayetty Firm from New Jersey produced the first toilet paper named “The Therapeutic Paper”. It contained an abundance of aloe, a curative addition. The company sold it in packs of 500 sheets for fifty cents, and Joseph Gayetty had his name printed on each sheet.

38. The Scott Paper Company is the first company to manufacture tissue on a roll, specifically for the use of toilet paper.

39. Early Scott Paper advertisements suggested that “over 65% of middle-aged men and women suffered from some sort of rectal disease”. Inferior toilet paper was deemed to be responsible. It was printed in Scott advertisements that “harsh toilet tissue may cause serious injury”. The ad said ” ScotTissue, Sani-tissue and Waldorf are famous bathroom tissues specifically processed to satisfy the three requirements doctors say toilet tissue must have to be safe: absorbency-softness-chemical purity”.

40. Before toilet paper was invented, people used:

41. Newsprint, paper catalogue pages in early US

42. Discarded sheep’s wool in the Viking Age, England

43. Frayed end of an old anchor cable was used by sailing crews from Spain and Portugal *Medieval Europe- Straw, hay, grass, gompf stick

44. Corn cobs, Sears Roebuck catalog, mussel shell, newspaper, leaves, sand- United States

45. Water and your left hand, India

46. Pages from a book, British Lords

47. Coconut shells in early Hawaii

48. Lace was used by French Royalty

49. Public Restrooms in Ancient Rome- A sponge soaked in salt water, on the end of a stick

50. The Wealthy in Ancient Rome-Wool and Rosewater

The Dumbest Criminals Ever

We have all heard tons of stories and seen many news accounts regarding criminals that don’t seem to have a clue when it comes to following laws, and even worse off as they break them. These types of criminals seem to have zero sense as they make ridiculous choices- some humorous and some harmful, but still very, very dumb. Below are truly some of the dumbest criminals of all time.

1. In San Francisco, California, a man wanting to rob a Bank of America, walked into the branch and wrote “this iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag.” While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he reached the teller window. So he left the Bank of America and crossed the street to Wells Fargo. After waiting a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller. She read it and, surmising from his spelling errors that he was not the brightest light in the harbor, told him that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America. Looking somewhat defeated, the man said “OK” and left. The Wells Fargo teller then called the police who arrested the man a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at Bank of America.

2. In Brooklyn, New York, Victor Marin was stealing $218 in cash from an apartment he had broken into, for some reason he decided to take out his own wallet and lay it on a bed. When he left, he forgot something, yep, his wallet! When Marin returned minutes later, the apartment’s resident was back. Marin knocked on the door and offered to return the money in exchange for his wallet, which contained his ID and credit cards. The victim told him to stuff the money under the front door one by one. That gave police time to show up and arrest him.

3. In Oslo, Norway, two men in their early 20s decided to wreck an elevator in a train station by violently kicking the closed doors…while they were still inside. The doors jammed, and the elevator stopped, sounding an alarm that alerted security guards. The guards tried to lower the elevator, but the doors jammed even more, so they called the police and the fire department. The two vandals were eventually freed — and promptly arrested. Their actions were recorded on the elevator’s security camera.

4. An individual (we are assuming a woman) stole more than a half million dollars worth of different feminine products from sanitary napkins to tampons. The thieves broke into several shipping containers to steal their loot. Once they entered the containers, they completely wiped out the entire line of products. I am not sure there is a high black market value for tampons, but one never knows I guess.

5. In McDonald County, Missouri, Eric Bishop and Justin Forcum managed to crawled through a hole, bust out of jail and didn’t get caught in the process. They then stole a pickup truck and some drugs and had a dandy of a time. Instead of just running away for good, they decided to sneak back into jail and were then caught by correctional officers. Why… why?

6. In West Palm Beach, Florida Frank Singleton, a young 21 year old had just been released from jail. However, when he realized that he didn’t have a ride home, he walked straight into the prison parking lot and attempted to carjack a woman. He was foiled when he realized that he couldn’t drive a car with a stick shift. As he was re-arrested — this time, for felony carjacking — Singleton told police that he simply “didn’t feel like walking.”

7. In Bristol, Tennessee a gentleman by the name of Randy Lewis was at least trying to be responsible by not driving drunk to go on a beer run. Instead, he had his 10-year-old son drive. The boy proceeded to crash the car at an estimated 90 miles per hour. The elder Lewis had not only a blood-alcohol content of over three times the state limit, but he also had cocaine in his system — not to mention two other children in the vehicle. Lewis was charged with drunk driving, reckless endangerment and child abuse and was booked wearing a t-shirt reading “Buy this dad a beer.”

8. A woman was reporting her car as stolen and mentioned that there was a car phone in it. The policeman taking the report called the phone and told the guy that answered that he had read the ad in the newspaper and wanted to buy the car. They arranged to meet, and the thief was arrested.

9. According to Publix employees in Spring Hill, FL, Mark Alan Belkola was seen shoving six packs of steaks down his shorts. When authorities caught him they found 8 steaks and a jar of Vaseline. He claimed, “I’m starving, that’s why I took the steaks!” I wasn’t aware Vaseline was edible?? Umm…

10. In Bendorf, Germany a 27-year-old man arrived for his road driving test smelling of alcohol. Although he insisted to the instructor that he hadn’t had anything to drink, he proceeded to drive erratically, at which point the instructor directed him to pull into a parking lot…at a police station. The man was booked for driving with a blood-alcohol content of three times the legal limit. And he failed the test.