Chewy Bits

5 Taters In A Bag Of Lay’s

When I was a wee lad my grandfather always had a couple of fact books on his bookshelf. I absolutely loved them, and seemed to lose track of time reading through the endless supply of information. A few decades later and nothing has changed, to this day I still enjoy learning a good ol useless bit of information. Take a look at the items below and see how just much raw material it takes to send…

Mayonnaise On A Plane

You never forget something like this. An early morning flight out of La Guardia heading home to Los Angeles. We had just wrapped up a four day shoot in Staten Island and I was exhausted and a little crabby to say the least. My early morning smell sensitivity was going into hyperdrive, all the smells of the city were hitting me hard. Early morning flights are great, the earlier the better. I get…

Kiwi Fruit – The true underdog of California agriculture

Young Kiwi on the vine in the California sun

We have all glanced at it in the grocery store and then looked the other way. Often tucked in the corner, near the tropical fruit. I’m sure the average produce guy has no idea what to do with it, where to put it or how to sell it. Many of us have zero idea where it even comes from, let alone what it tastes like. It’s oddly shaped, a little like an…

The Biggest Restaurants in The United States

Ever get that lonely feeling and just want to be around people? Immerse yourself in a crowd? Look no further my friend, your prayers have been answered. The parameters for the largest restaurants in the US had only one metric, number of seats. All of these restaurants have the population of a small town inside of them on a busy Saturday night. They also all have their own set of challenges and…

20 Eating Contests that will leave you wanting to explode

“Pain is temporary; pride is forever”. This was the message on the boy’s basketball team’s shirts in high school. At the time it didn’t mean too much to me but now I know just how much it means, especially in the world of competitive eating. All of the numbers are staggering, some of the food is downright disgusting. None the less, the competitors in these events do things that the average person…

A few months ago I was walking through a Japanese grocer and saw the coolest little three cup rice cooker for sale next to its larger cousins on the shelves. It was shiny and new and I had to have it. Almost 42 years old and I have always cooked my rice on the stove top. And it never came out perfect, ever. Now I was confident that I would be able to get in on the highly guarded sushi rice game.…