Today, I went looking for one of Thomasina (Tommi) Miers' recipes from her Channel-4 mini-series, "A Cook's Tour of Spain." The particular recipe employs both authentic chorizo and ripe watermelon. Apparently, the spicy chorizo goes very well with the sweet watermelon.

Tommi Miers' Spanish Tostadas

While I was pondering the paired flavour contrast, I turned to the tech website, hardocp.com, and found the following slightly "provocative" image:

Pair of Melons
Source: alt.games.warbirds forum c/o hardocp.com

A quick google search, turned up the source of the image, the alt.games.warbirds forum, and another "pair of melons"

Another Pair of Melons
Source: alt.games.warbirds forum

These being "funny pictures for a dirty mind" aside, if I am to make Tommi Miers' recipe, I have to find myself a ripe watermelon when the fruit is in season (late summer for the Ottawa-area). Fresh chorizo can be easily had at the local Saslove's.

According to iVillage's Garden Web website's FAQ, there are numerous methods to determine if a watermelon is ripe. Some require you to have the watermelon on a vine. Others, make quick indicators when shopping at the farmers' market or mega-mart. Here is one method that Alton Brown also vouched for in an episode of Good Eats.

Look for the spot where the melon rested on the ground; a yellow-white, yellow or a cream-yellow color spot suggests ripeness and a white or pale green spot indicates immaturity. A green watermelon will have a white bottom; a ripe melon will have a cream- or yellow-colored bottom. Those fruit that show a change of color from green or olive-grey to yellowish brown should be considered ready to harvest. Also look for a breakup of green bands at the blossom end of the fruit. For best quality, walk the patch daily.

Of course, if "thumping", looking at the "ground spot", or checking for pronounced colour contrast between the watermelon's stripes are not definitive enough, there is always magnetic resonance imaging (MRI):

MRI machine for determining the sugar content of a watermelon
Source: Kobe Corporate Research Laboratory Electronics Research Laboratory

An MRI is the preferred method in Japan, where locally grown watermelons are highly sought after and very expensive.

BTW, I have absolutely no idea what the lady or gentlemen in the pictures above are doing. Though, I promised Jenn that she could take a picture of me doing the same next summer.

And here is the obligatory whimsical picture:

Puppy in a Bun
Source: "Funny Video and Picture Collection" blog

Actually, that someone was me. I just found an amusing little American web application, called bacolicio.us, that captures an image of any website fed to it and returns what the website would look like with a nicely crisped rasher of streaky bacon neatly deposited on it.

This is what foodiePrints would look like with more bacon on it:

foodiePrints with bacon

And since we're on the topic of bacon, here are some bacon sitings that I've been pooling for the past couple months:

Bacon Mat
Source: reddit.com c/o Ottawa's own Breakfast Blooger

If you're curious about how to make a "bacon weave", head over to Instructables. There, you will find a recipe that explains that bacon mats are baked, not pan fried.

How to make a Bacon Mat
Source: Seriouseats c/o Instructables.com

The majority of these images come from 2007, but the bacon mat made a re-appearance this past month in the widly popular "Bacon Explosion."

Bacon Explosion
Source: New York Times


Cross Section
Source: The originators of the Bacon Explosion, BBQ Addicts

This log-like mass of pork is a bacon mat wrapped 2 lbs of shaped Italian sausage, stuffed with crumbled bacon. Once put together, it is glazed and then cooked on the barbecue. Now ubiquitous and this year's featured Superbowl-Fare, the bacon explosion was originally created in Kansas by Jason Day and Aaron Chronister, founders of the Burnt Finger BBQ team. Chronister runs BBQ Addicts.

Speaking of this year's Superbowl, the boys at HolyTaco.com put together a "snack food stadium", containing among other traditional food ball foods, a lb of bacon and 58 Hostess Twinkies.

Snack Food Stadium
Source: Holy Taco

Now that two frighteningly savory preparations have been sorted, how about sweet bacon confections?

Chocolate covered Bacon

Bacon
Source: Marini's candy shop at the Boardwalk amusement park in Santa Cruz, California c/o msnbc.com

Bacon Mints

Bacon Mints
Source: CandyAddict.com

Then again, bacon seems to be showing up everywhere:

Bacon Dispenser
Source: saynotocrack blog c/o digg.com

And by enjoying bacon, some enterprising young women have decided to use it for lingerie.

Bacon Bra
Source: Brian Kusler's flickr photostream


Another Bacon Bra
Source: Lafinjack.net

Whatever the case, please remember where bacon comes from.

Maybe Next Time You'll Try a Little Sunscreen
Source: Royal Bacon Society

And to all a bacon-y good morning!

When couples get to the "move-in-together" stage of a relationship, you and your better half end up going to the home decor and/or furniture stores to fill in the gaps. Student or graduate alike, Ikea tends to top the list for most couples. For the more mature couples, there's Home Sense (affiliated with Sear's), Home Outfitters (affiliated with the Bay), the Bay, and Sear's. For the DIY couples, there's Rona and Home Depot. For the less cost conscious couples, there's EQ3. Though, no matter what show room in which store, there's inevitably the holler from one to the other, "Honey! Come take a look at this. We gotta get one of these." My turn!

"Sweetie dear? We gotta get one of these!"

The Hamburger Bed
Source: The Hamburger Bed Facebook Fan Page c/o geekologie.com and digg.com

"Solid construction."

Sesame Seed Duvet

Onion and Tomato Cushions

Lettuce Sheets
Source: The Hamburger Bed Facebook Fan Page c/o geekologie.com and digg.com

"Eh? Did you say that you wanted bacon with that?"
"No problem! We can accessorize..."

Bacon shaped

Iphone case
Source: gizmodo.com
"No dear. This isn't an excuse for me to go get an Iphone...A pouch that size can hold lots of other things...like an Iphone...Oops..."

"How about something that we both can use then?"

Wak'n Bacon Alarm Clock
Source: mathlete c/o blogadilla

I've a feeling that I'm going to be sleeping on the couch tonight...

Look what Digg.com dragged up:

Godzilla Egg
Posted a day and a half ago, the image of a Japanese brand of watermelon has garnered 864 diggs to date.

If you follow the water mark in the image, you will be led to the Eegra.com blog, where the "egg" was dubbed the "Coolest Watermelon in the World." The image on Digg was posted on Eegra.com by Patrick Alexander last summer in July.

However, the Godzilla Egg was spotted by Slash Food in 2005.

Godzilla Egg on Slash Food
Here, the online community behind Slash Food translated the Japanese on the egg's packaging "gojira no tamago." The watermelon really is marketed as "Godzilla's Egg."

Yet another siting, this one undated, was made by D. Ashton, a student from British Columbia's Simon Frasier University.

Caged Godzilla Egg
Here, this image features the Godzilla Egg being sold in a wooden cage, lined with straw. Better yet, its price was also captured. According to google, at today's exchange rate, 8800 Japanese yen translates to $114.08 CAD.

Wowsers!!!

In the episode "Melondrama", Alton Brown said that the Japanese prize their Watermelons so much that they use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine the sugar content or ripeness of watermelons. At this price, I'd demand forensic evidence too!

This just in:

Another Pricey Godzilla Egg
Source: Andrew Shuttleworth's flickr stream
According to google, at today's exchange rate, 13500 Japanese yen translates to $174.68 CAD

A prime example of the convergence of traditional push media and more modern push-pull media is the semi-viral marketing campaign employed by the American Turner Broadcasting Station to promote its sitcom, 10 Items or Less. According to wikipedia.net, the show debuted on TBS on November 27, 2006. It is currently aired in two countries outside of the US: Canada (on Global) and the UK (on the F/X channel). However, due to poor ratings, the show, which has been renewed for a third season by TBS, will be dropped from Global's roster.

To promote the show during the holiday season, TBS launched the lesliesturkeybowling.com website and filmed amateur video of college-aged kids "turkey bowling." Turkey bowling has nothing to do with bowling 3 consecutive strikes. It involves commandeering an aisle in a grocery store, blocking each end with merchandise, and setting up a 12 pin frame using full 2L drink bottles at one end. To bowl, a frozen turkey is hurled along the floor towards the drink bottles. The standard rules of bowling apply. The lesliesturkeybowling.com website hosts an Adobe Flash version of the game with detailed instructions on how to play. The amateur video was posted to YouTube.

Here are screen captures of the Flash game on lesliesturkeybowling.com:

Opening Screen

Score, during my first try

Here is one of the amateur videos:

It was posted on December 19, 2008. At the end, the lesliesturkeybowling.com url is displayed with a warning that turkey bowling is more than likely illegal and, if caught, could lead to prosecution if not a civil lawsuit.

On December 22, 2008, another video, featuring two main characters from 10 Items or Less was uploaded. It resembles a public service announcement, warning other grocers about the sport and encouraging zero tolerance. Needless to say, it goes horribly wrong and hilarity ensues.


More amateur footage, featuring the lesliesturkeybowling.com url appeared after new year.

You will notice that some of the footage from this video was used in the public service announcement.

Did the folks who write for 10 Items or Less come up with turkey bowling? Probably not, but it now has a following.

The boys from CollegeHumor.com responded to the public service announcement with their own video of their staff turkey bowling in their office space.


A youtube user who goes by the handle shaycarl has posted a series of videos of he and his friends going to random supermarkets or department stores and turkey bowling. The following was filmed at a Walmart.

Amazingly, shaycarl, who is announced to be born and bred to kill deer and eat turkey, even gets a random shopper to participate.

While we at foodiePrints cannot condone the practice of turkey bowling, we find the turkey bowling lexicon hilarious.

• White Meat: A fresh, clean turkey straight from the freezer.
• Dark Meat: A turkey that has been used for several frames and has become dirty and worn. Also known as a "Ground Turkey"
• Deep Fried: A turkey so heated by bowling friction that it actually begins to cook a little.
• Drumstick Hook: Gripping the turkey by the left or right drumstick when rolling to create enough side-spin to make the turkey curve as it rolls toward the soda bottles.
• Gobbler: A turkey bowler known for rolling the turkey with extreme force, making it hook more.
• Gravy Boat: A turkey bowler known for timing and delivery as smooth as a Grandma's famous Thanksgiving gravy.
• Gravy Gobbler: A turkey bowler who combines the high hooking power of a Gobbler with the smooth delivery and timing of a Gravy Boat. Also known as a "Tom Turkey".

Seriously, please don't try this in real life. Besides the standard misuse or potential destruction of merchandise, I'm pretty sure you don't want to purchase a turkey that was once used as a bowling ball.