ideometric

I like this idea from a temporary cafe in Japan: you get what the person in front of you ordered. As a concept it’s fun, but working something like that into a normal brick and mortar cafe might be tougher — generally you’d just want to go in and get whatever you want, no hassle. But I could see it working at specific low-volume times as a quirky way to encourage interaction with strangers in line and pop the antisocial laptop bubbles people get stuck in.

Wired has an interesting Thanksgiving related look at genetically modified food. It’s slightly creepy.

The accumulation of agricultural breeding knowledge and consumer testing has resulted in plants and animals that are physically shaped by consumer tastes. Americans like a medium-size corn kernel, so kernels aren’t too big or small. American consumers like white meat, so turkeys are grown with larger breasts.

So large that their legs can’t even hold them up. That’s naaaasty. Right?

And some food lovers argue that fast growth and genetic change have robbed turkey meat of its distinctive taste. Some are turning to heritage-breed turkeys like the Blue Slate variety that pack pre-industrial genomes.

There’s something weird about shopping based on the genetic properties of your food…

A ten page article in the New Yorker about craft brewing and the characters involved, focused on Dogfish Head brewery.

“…to most people it wouldn’t have tasted like beer at all. There were hints of tobacco and molasses in it, black cherries and dark chocolate, all interlaced with the wood’s spicy resin. It tasted like some ancient elixir that the Inca might have made.”

It’s a good read. Makes me miss being in the states; Korean beer tastes like mineral water.