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The best edibles don't taste like weed
When I think about how many milligrams of cannabis I've consumed on my quest for a good-tasting edible, I imagine their little strings of THC DNA orbiting Earth at least two or three times, flipping me the finger as they whiz by. I didn't realize this would be such a massive endeavor a few years ago when, as a food writer focused on craft chocolate, I wondered if anyone was combining quality cocoa beans with marijuana. Since then, I've sampled dozens upon dozens of products, each figuratively dashing my taste buds' hopes against a rock -- along with my few remaining brain cells.
Super-thin edible sensors can monitor food temperature
Biomaterials that are rigid in form but able to degrade safely are everywhere. You can find tech like this in medical implants, environmental sensors and wearable, disposable devices. What's harder to do, though, is to make sensors that you can digest. That's exactly what Swiss researchers in Zurich have created, though: a thin, edible sensor that can attach to food and wirelessly report on its temperature. Now our fruits and vegetables can be part of the Internet of Things.
KFC-flavored nail polish gives new meaning to 'chicken fingers'
KFC is taking its "finger lickin' good" slogan a bit too far. The fried chicken fast food chain made two "edible" fingernail polishes for its fans in Hong Kong. Teaming up with ad agency Ogilvy & Mather and food experts at McCormick, two shades were created that incorporate the restaurant's top secret blend of 11 herbs and spices: Original Recipe and Hot & Spicy.
Taste the Apple rainbow
The Apple logo is a fairly common subject of custom pastry artists -- the Apple pie jokes write themselves -- but rarely do any intrepid chefs attempt to recreate the colorful retro look. Flickr user Pingiwingi knocked it out of the park with this cake, which looks almost too good to eat. Bravo! [Photo credit: Pingiwingi]
Mmmm, an iPhone cupcake
An iPhone cupcake from the professional cupcake artists at Clever Cupcakes. Nom nom nom. [Photo Credit: Clever Cupcakes]
NutriSmart prototype embeds RFID tags directly within food, traces your lunch from start to finish (video)
RFID tags are already used to trace everything from poker chips to hotel towels, but what if these little pellets were embedded directly within your lunch, providing everything you'd ever wanna know about that ham sandwich you're about to beast? That's the idea behind NutriSmart -- a food tracking system that revolves around edible RFID tags. Developed by Hannes Harms, a design engineering student at the Royal College of Art in London, these little markers would allow consumers to trace the entire supply chain behind every item in their cupboard, while feeding valuable nutritional information to dieters or people with particularly dangerous food allergies. Kodak, as you may recall, came up with a similar idea a few years ago, though Harms' prototype extends beyond the realm of medical monitoring. Properly equipped refrigerators, for example, would be able to alert users whenever their stock's about to expire, simply by scanning the tags. The NutriSmart concept also calls for a smart plate, which Harms describes as an "invisible diet management system." Just put your meal on the plate and an embedded reader will analyze your grub, tell you how many miles it traveled before arriving at your kitchen and transmit all of its history and caloric data to your phone, via Bluetooth. No word yet on what would happen to these tags post-digestion, though our inner 13-year-olds are giggling at the possibilities. Video after the break.
So very disturbing: Bring me Steve Jobs' (cheese) head on a plate
Ken over at TheCooksDen has sculpted an edible Steve Jobs' head out of two blocks of mozzarella and some pepper. It's actually pretty impressive in a Hannibal Lecter kind of way. Ken, who admits he's a Mac fanboy and a foodie, thought that there was no better way to show his appreciation for his much-loved Apple products than to create a tasty sculpture in the form of Apple's venerable leader. Well all right then. He doesn't stop with just Steve's head either (as if you were worried about that). Ken offers three other recipes – all using Steve's head in some way – to show off your Apple gastronomy. The concoctions include the Apple Cheese Plate, the Spicy Steve Nachos Supreme, and my favorite, the iPad Thai. The full ingredients list and cooking instructions are on the site. So, what are you waiting for? Get cooking! [TUAW is not responsible for any loss of lunch/nightmares incurred due to viewing the photo above. Yikes. -Ed.]
Robotic cucumber hand freaks out party goers
We've got all ideas that whipping up an edible Wii (and a few controllers while you're at it) would make for a fantastic (albeit overtly geeky) shindig, but there's just something satisfying about a robotic cucumber hand that freaks out attendees that visit the snack table a tad too frequently. The creature, which was reportedly, um, prepared for an event hosted by a CMU computer scientist, primarily consisted of a number of edible parts, a servo, control arm, and a CMU Canary sensing / control platform. Truth be told, however, pictures can only explain so much, so feel free to click on through for a glimpse at this thing in action (and the entire recipe, too).[Via CNET]
Keepin' it real fake, part LXVIII: the edible iPhone edition
We've seen knit iPhones, iPhone clones, but this takes the cake, an edible iPhone. Will the iPhone madness ever end? How tasty must that luscious dark chocolate frosting be? Sadly no hint was given about the creator(s) of this bit of mobile confection, but if any of you do, please have them get in touch. We've decided Engadget Mobile needs an HTC Kaiser with working hinge and sliding action -- white cake would be fine, though, we prefer angel food cake around here. Top shelf bit of work on that phone and they even got the AT&T bit right.
Crafty Wii user creates chocolate Wiimote, nunchuck
If you're even considering making a late night grocery run to stock up on post-Valentine's Day chocolate sales, hold your horses. For those who just so happened to keep the original packaging from your Wiimote and nunchuck as any true geek does, or you need a delicious excuse to run out and grab another set, you're well on your way to edible nirvana. A crafty Flickr user utilized his culinary skills along with the plastic packaging that accompanied his Wii accessories in order to make molds for Wiimote / nunchuck chocolate, which look mighty scrumptious if we may so say ourselves. While we're not experts on creating our own choco bars, it has certainly been done a time or two before, so why not indulge yourself a bit with a little calorie-packed Wiimote after a vigorous round of Wii exercise, cool?
Kodak envisions edible RFID tags for medical purposes, light snacks
If you're not down with wearing, handling, or implanting RFID chips on (or in) human beings, we presume you're fairly skeptical about consuming one. A recent patent application filed by Kodak envisions an edible RFID wafer that would ideally be used to monitor various aspects of a patient's health. The digestible tag would be covered in a substance that would slow the dissolving process enough to view certain aspects of one's innards, and furthermore, these tags could be surgically implanted into knees and joints in order to alert doctors when additional work should be performed. The tags could even be integrated into medicines in order to more accurately witness whether a rebellious patient has indeed swallowed his or her pills. So before you cry foul on voluntarily ingesting a (hopefully) dissolving RFID tag, just think of all the medical breakthroughs this could lead to -- or how traceable you'd eternally be if your gastric acid is weaker than usual.[Via NewScientistTech, thanks Matt]
