Mate, The Drink Of Argentina

Mate is the national drink of Argentina. “Maté” literally means “I killed” in Spanish. Later the word was used by people who colonized the region of the Río de la Plata to describe the natives rough and sour drink, always consumed with nothing added to soften the taste. Traditionally the beverage is prepared in the same gourd cup, also called mate or guampa.

The initial preparation involves an arrangement of the yerba within the gourd before adding hot water. In this method, the gourd is first filled half to three-quarters of the way with yerba The mate is then shaken very gently in a side-to-side motion. Now the mate is ready to receive the straw.

Some people pour warm water into the mate before adding the straw, while others say that the straw is best inserted into dry yerba. If the straw was inserted into dry yerba, the mate must first be filled once with cool water, then be allowed to absorb it completely (which generally takes no more than two or three minutes).

Mate is traditionally drunk in a social setting, like a family gathering or among a group of friends. The same gourd (cuia) and straw (bomba/bombilla) are passed around and used by everyone drinking .

Dancing with the Green Fairy

Absinthe with it’s natural green color has been referred to as the Green Fairy. This anise-flavoured spirit is made from the flowers and leaves of wormwood, green anise, sweet fennel and other herbs,  and because of it’s high alcohol level is normally diluted with water. With a slightly bitter taste, it is often  poured into a glass of water over a sugar cube on a perforated spoon, some of which were elaborately designed for this purpose.

Absinthe was said to be both a narcotic and an aphrodisiac. It was adopted by the bohemian Parisian culture of authors and artists who claimed that it stimulated  creativity. Absinthe’s legends caused it to be banned in most of Europe and North America. It took nearly a century before it’s reputation could be restored. In 1988, France lifted its ban on absinthe, but it wasn’t marketed under its real name again until 1998. Studies have proven that the ingredients have never been hallucinogenic, but it’s effects were due to the fact that it is 140 proof. Absinthe doesn’t come cheap, priced at about seventy dollars a bottle. Absinthe’s long past is the stuff of legend whether true or not.

http://www.absinth.com/

 

Mushroom Etchings

Boston based artist Corey Corcoran forgoes paper or canvas for a less traditional medium, instead drawing inspiration from nature and organic forms. The artist works with the natural textures on the surface of the conk mushroom to create beautiful images populated with carefully depicted plant life, insects and animals.

Corcoran’s etchings are intricately detailed and lightly engraved into the underside of the mushroom.  His work seems to be caught in the middle of an engrossing narrative, a story unfolding.  Also, Corcoran doesn’t forget the natural character of his medium when determining the content of each piece.

http://coreycorcoran.com/

Painting with Tea

Liverpool-based artist Carne Griffiths creates magical artworks by combining traditional mediums like ink with drinks like tea, vodka, brandy, whiskey and other alcohols.

39-year-old Carne Griffiths relies on drinks to make his art stand out. He isn’t the only artist to find his inspiration in drink, famous masters like Vincent Van Gogh and Salvador Dali enjoyed a glass of alcohol to release their creative talents, but Mr. Griffiths has a very different approach – he uses them as paint. “I have drawn with fountain pen for many years, often with plain water washes. When I decided to leave my post of creative director at an embroidery firm to pursue a love of drawing I experimented with liquids such as brandy,” Carne said in an interview about his medium choices. “I liked the effect this had on the inks I was using but decided that an alternative that wasn’t such a wasteful crime would be a better option so I started experimenting with different types of tea.” Using a combination of ink and tea allows the English artist to create repeating layers which he then partly washes out with various types of tea, and making new drawings out of what appears beneath.
http://www.carnegriffiths.com/

Christmas Island Crabs

Every fall, Christmas Island is overcome by a red wave of migrating crustaceans, on a mad dash from the forest to the sea. Terrestrial crabs that are unique to this area, their offspring must be born in the ocean or they will not survive. As soon as the humidity is just right, around October or November, they swarm the island.

The locals are protective of their sideways-scuttling neighbors, and are careful to minimize driving, hang “Crabs Crossing” signs on the roads, and watch their feet during the migration, but a few million become casualties every year to vehicles, other animals, and clumsy tourists not accustomed to carefully watching their steps. Once they reach the ocean and go about their business, they return to the forest, first the males, then the females, exhausted and spent, to wait for their offspring to return.

A few weeks later, the hatchlings have grown into their land legs, and it’s time for them to journey across the island to their woodland home. With 100,000 hatchlings per female, the magnitude is hard to imagine as they wash back across the roads and buildings like a sea of red spiders, swarming over everything in their path. The islanders do their best to help them along , but it’s a losing battle. There is nothing to do but work around them as much as possible, and try to ignore the invasion.

To be able to see this you have to hurry, because of the  accidental introduction of the aggressive “yellow crazy ant” the numbers of the red crabs are declining at an alarming rate. The highly invasive insect has wreaked havoc on the ecology of the island, their excretion is poisoning the crabs as well as several other species unique to Christmas Island. Over a quarter of the red crab population has been wiped out so far, and the crabs now face extinction.

http://www.christmas.net.au/parks/crabs/index.htm

Freight Turned Pizza Truck is a Visual Feast

Del Popolo, meaning “of the people,” is a food truck crafted from a massive Freightliner M2 turned mobile pizzeria. The diesel is a gourmet behemoth with glass windows covering an entire side of the truck, enabling passerby to gaze into the sleek interior. The inside features a 5,000 lb Stefano Ferrara brick oven and the smell of freshly-made dough baking fills the air as customers wait for a slice of the famous pizza.

Del Popolo is housed in a twenty-foot transatlantic shipping container that’s been re-purposed and modified into a kitchen. A wall of glass doors exposes the interior, including the traditional Italian-made wood-fired oven.

The owner, Jon Darsky, hails from New York and sources his organic ingredients from small family-run Italian producers.

http://delpopolosf.com/

Bacon Scented Shaving Cream

As if bacon perfume wasn’t enough to help people carry the smell of the tasty treat with them wherever they went, a Seattle-based food company has just launched a limited-edition Bacon Shaving Cream.

Justin Esch and Dave Lefkow, the two man behind J&D Foods, have just released their newest idea – a bacon-scented shaving cream that will allegedly make users ’smell and feel like a champion’. Yup, the smell of bacon usually has that effect on people, but what I’d like to know is how does one restrain from having a taste of the heavenly-smelling shaving cream. After all, as inventor Justin Esch himself admits, “there is nothing more powerful than the smell of bacon, nothing.” Company co-founder Dave Lefkow also wrote in a press release:”Bacon Shaving Cream is a high end, luxurious bacon-scented shaving cream for all skin types. Our advanced heat-activated aromatic technology lasts for hours and delivers maximum bacon scent when you need it most.”

In the old days, people used bacon grease to shave their beards, and since the breakfast food is so hugely popular these days, a bacon-flavored shaving cream just made sense. And at $14.95 it’s a steal if you can’t get enough of that crispy treat smell. But you’d better act fast, as J&D have created just 2,500 jars of the delicious-smelling lather, and with the holidays just around the corner, they’re bound to sell like bacon hot cakes.
http://store.baconsalt.com/Bacon-Shaving-Cream_p_170.html

GAGA TEA

by Nathalie Hallman

‘Gaga Tea’, a conceptual tea box consisting of ten different flavours, each inspired by Gaga’s most memorable characters throughout her career so far. Along with the tea came the following motivation:

“Aside from being the Queen of pop culture, an eccentric and a constantly evolving chameleon, Lady Gaga is also a notorious tea-drinker. Google ’Lady Gaga+tea’ and you will end up with over 44 million search hits merely of Gaga drinking tea. There is even a Facebook-fan page dedicated to her most famous and frequently photographed tea cup.

Bacon Makes Everything Better

Blk, A Black Mineral Water

Blk is a spring water that is infused with fulvic acid, a mineral that colors the water black.

It is available on Amazon.