Like a lot of techy boys, I love gadgets. Like a lot of amateur cooks, I love gadgets. Normally, gadgets from one world don't fit in the other. "Never the twain shall meet", so to speak. Imagine my surprise when engadget (endgadget.com) and gizmodo (gizmodo.com), both giants in the blogosphere for their coverage of bleeding-edge tech gadgets, picked up on the "spice gun."

While not yet a product, three dimensional renders of the spice gun showed up on the designboom.com website as part of contest. There, its design is accredited to a Zhu Fei of China. How does it work? Place three different seasonings in canisters that load into the revolving barrel of a gun-type dispenser. Pull the trigger to compress the air in the airbag in the handle. This in turn activates the "handspike", which pushes the bottom of the seasoning bottle to make the nozzle in the turntable retract and dispenses the respective seasoning. Whether or not the design is sound, the idea is pretty innovative. Imagine rigging the gun to dispense a sequence of seasoning by having the barrel turn with every press of the trigger.

If a novel way to dispense dry seasoning doesn't tickle your fancy, how about a condiment gun?

Again, the design involves a revolving barrel and canisters (called cartridges in this case) of payload. This time, however, the product exists. It is being sold on firebox.com for £14.95 and is currently out of stock. Unlike the spice gun, the condiment gun seems to employ compressible cartridges, instead of a pressurized air reservoir, to dispense condiments. While the canisters come in yellow and red, I presume that any viscous sauce-type condiment can be dispensed by the condiment gun. I also came across the condiment "pistol" on gizmodo.com. A gadget is a gadget is a gadget.

I guess packing heat means loading up with dried cayenne for the spice gun and hot sauce for the condiment gun. Either would be fun additions for the upcoming barbecue season!



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