What stands out most to me are the ingenious and fascinating kitchen gadgets I come across throughout the four-day ordeal. They’re utensils and cooking accessories that will inspire you to build new drawers in your kitchen just so you can store it and rarely use them (or so you think!).
Check out some of our favorites from this year's show including a self-leveling spoon, un-spillable mug, and more.
1. Levoons
Perfect baking has a lot to do with the perfect measurement of ingredients, and this creative self-leveling spoon by Dreamfarm assures that every teaspoon of baking soda is no more or less than what your recipe requires.
2. Karoto
Bring out your Iron Chef garnishing capabilities with the Karoto carrot sharpener by Monkey Business. It also works with cucumbers and zucchini and anything else, as long as it’s not your finger!
3. Zoku Quick Pop Maker Social Media Kit
Just when you thought you couldn’t “like” popsicles any more, out comes these adorable pop molds with customizable social media symbols by Zoku. You’ll need the pop maker to use them, but now that winter is over, we know you’ve been looking for one!
4. Odor-Absorbing Splatter Screen
When I first spotted this odor-absorbing splatter screen by Faberware, I was a bit skeptical. After all, I have a reputation of stinking my house with salmon steaks. But after a good fish fry with this screen, I can positively say that not only are my oil splatters under control, the fishy smells are long gone!
5. Pepo Watermelon Slicer
There’s never been a reason not eat watermelon in my home. But now I can munch slices of watermelon with one hand using this innovative Pepo watermelon slicer. The biggest question is why it took so long to invent this ingenious watermelon slicer!
6. Mighty Mug
You need to see the Mighty Mug in person (or video) to believe it! Using a patented suction base, the mug won’t fall over when pushed, yet releases effortlessly when you lift it. Coffee mugs, drink containers and even wine glasses have evolved into a revolutionary and un-spillable technology! The future is here!
7. Stick m Up Thermometers
There is nothing more horrifying than a refrigerator that freezes eggs or a freezer that thaws ice cream. Thanks to these ultra-convenient Stick m Up Thermometers, you’re able to monitor both cold boxes and anywhere else in your home. They simply stick with the included magnet or adhesive.
8. Strawberry Knife
If you happen to love strawberries, you know that strawberry season is on its way. To make your hulling and slicing easier, Kuhn Rikon has come out with a neat strawberry knife. It folds like an army knife for easy storage and has a non-stick Japanese blade.
Everyone knows a clean kitchen is a good kitchen. The Surface Swipe by Kohler is the ultimate squeegee for wiping wet spills and sweeping dry crumbs off your countertop, straight into the sink (or trash). And for easy storage, the handle design allows you to hang it on the side of your sink. It also looks really cool!
Top image: The Food Huggers reusable silicone food savers. Credit: Food Huggers.
10 Facts About History’s Shameful And Horrible Human Zoos By Gregory Myers, Listverse, 29 March 2016.
While racism is something that is increasingly relegated to the fringes of society and humanity has become much better at talking about the issue, there are still many ways that racism in the past has been whitewashed or mostly ignored. The Civil Rights era, the abuses during the times up to and including the US Civil War, and other similar happenings at the same time in Europe are talked about often, but there are certain periods of racism that history would rather you forget.
In the early 1900s in Europe and the United States, a phenomenon known sometimes as “living village exhibits” and more crudely as “human zoos” made rounds and grew in popularity. Billed as a form of entertainment, these exhibits were also highly degrading to various groups of people and were designed to display the alleged superiority of the white man.
After the war between the United States and the Philippines, the victorious US decided that they would further humiliate their defeated foes by putting them on public display as “savages.” Many Filipinos today are still angry about the way their people were treated. The beginning of the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis coincided nicely with the end of the war, so the United States put together multiple living people exhibits, among them a 47-acre exhibit housing mostly Filipinos from the Igorot tribe.
This tribe was known primarily because they occasionally ate dog, so as part of the “curiosity” of it all, Igorots in the living village exhibit were made to kill and butcher dogs constantly for the amusement of onlookers. This was all made to reinforce a stereotype that they themselves knew wasn’t true; they only ate dog very occasionally as part of certain ceremonies. While some people may think that history has forgotten these things, there are those who are still taking the time to reflect on this chapter in their history well over 100 years later.
9. Native Americans Were Paraded Around Like Animals In Europe
Most people are well aware that Native Americans have been mistreated over the years, but most people aren’t aware of the sheer depth and breadth of the mistreatment and how much history has tried to hide it. In more recent years, many concerned with historical accuracy have campaigned to show that certain people like Christopher Columbus weren’t the heroes we were told they were in history class. While Columbus never actually set foot on what is now the United States, he did find outlying islands with natives and gold and immediately got incredibly greedy.
Apart from making multiple expeditions to steal massive amounts of gold from the people of the islands, he also kidnapped hundreds of them and brought them back to be paraded around and displayed as living curiosities, long before the more modern versions of human zoos. The first batch of these slaves was dead within six months, but that didn’t stop Columbus’s legendary cruelty. He made multiple raiding runs, and the mortality rates didn’t get much better. Hundreds of natives died just so that the folks back home could have something interesting to gawk at.
While Columbus was certainly guilty of parading people around like animals at a zoo, the first person known to have actually put together large-scale exhibits and filled them with people (alongside animals) was the Aztec emperor Montezuma. Montezuma was a very powerful ruler, and like many with such power, he became absolutely drunk with it. In a move that would have given some of the more insane Roman emperors pause, Montezuma decided that his zoo, in what is now Mexico City, would be more interesting with human exhibits.
However, while the United States and other European countries would be fascinated with the idea of taking defeated foes and showing them off as “savages” in order to humiliate a beaten enemy, Montezuma was more interested in genetic anomalies and strange-looking people. To this end, he created perhaps one of the first known human zoo exhibits that could be described as a “freak show.” He housed albinos, hunchbacks, and even dwarfs in his zoo - near exhibits that housed various animals.
7. The Jarawa Are Exploited For Safaris
While it might seem like more of an old-time thing to gawk at different groups of “ethnic” people for amusement, the truth is that it’s still a common practice in certain parts of the world, and there are always people willing to pay a lot of money to take part in the exploitation of native people.
The Jarawa have lived on India’s Andaman Islands for many years and have had every little contact with the rest of the world. India’s laws provide protections for ancient peoples, and it is technically illegal for others to interact with them in any way and against the law to view them as a zoo exhibit. However, this has not stopped certain businessmen looking to make a profit at any cost. Some reports say that as many as eight different safari companies were offering tours with illegal routes designed to bring people into contact with the Jarawa as part of the show.
There was an incident where police were accused of accepting a bribe in order to trick Jarawa into dancing for the amusement of tourists. While the police deny they made the Jarawa dance, it’s clear that they were being exploited by someone for entertainment purposes.
To make matters worse, one of the nearby islands is home to the Sentinelese, probably one of the least-contacted groups of people remaining in the world. Only a few hundred are estimated to live on the island, and despite it being heavily illegal to conduct safaris near the Jarawa or to go near the other islands, tourism groups are doing their best to encroach more and more, with the promise of giving the people a look at the elusive natives.
6. Human Villages Were Around Very Recently
Today, France is known for being a bastion against racism in Europe. Despite the recent attacks in Paris, France always has been and will remain one of the most welcoming countries to those in need of asylum. The country’s laws grant some of the best protections in the world when it comes to minorities of any kind. However, many people don’t realize just how recently minorities began to receive better treatment, even in some of the most progressive countries. Even with laws for protection, abuses can still happen in the modern world.
As recently as 1994, there was a large exhibition in France that housed a “living village” exhibit with people from the Ivory Coast. Many of them had their passports confiscated by the owner of the “zoo” and were expected to do all sorts of entertaining “ethnic” things for no pay at all. They were told that they would be given a reward by their people when they returned and were offered nothing for their work.
Public outcry and international attention caused the spectacle to be shut down before long, but the fact that it managed to open and stick around for a while in the first place shows that sometimes, true progress came a lot more recently than most people think. A human zoo would be unthinkable in France now, but it was accepted little more than 20 years ago.
5. A Zoo Exhibit To Make Fun Of Human Zoos
In 2005, the London Zoo decided to try an exhibit that was a little abnormal. It featured humans, but not in an attempt to reenact anything historical or to call attention to Europe’s past regarding the issue. In fact, it was done so lightheartedly that it seems like they were actively trying to avoid addressing the past. Instead, the display was meant to show that humans are primates like apes and monkeys.
Many people came to have a look, if nothing else but for the curiosity of the display, and children especially found the exhibit rather confusing, leaving them with many questions for their parents. The humans being displayed were paid actors who had to go home at night for legal reasons. They also wore bathing suits and fig leaves as part of the ensemble to give it a sort of humorous appeal. While it may have been funny for the actors and the people watching, the real human zoos were nothing to joke about.
While many people jumped on the bandwagon of human zoos as a quick way to make money or show cultural dominance, Carl Hagenbeck was one of the first to start the fad. He was also one of the first to be interested in actually housing large numbers of natives inside zoo exhibits alongside animals instead of just creating reenactment villages for native people to act out degrading stereotypes. He really wanted them to be in cages and thought that it would make for a much more entertaining show.
Hagenbeck had people taken from all over the world and then spread out through various zoos as prize exhibits. The display he was most proud of housed many Inuit people in a zoo in Hamburg, Germany. He also had a friend who put a large exhibit of Nubian people on display at another large European zoo and a huge group of Zulu and Bushmen whom he kept in the Paris Zoo.
Not even Native Americans were left out of the humiliating displays. In the United States, well after the Emancipation Proclamation, roughly 100 Sioux were being displayed in the Cincinnati Zoo.
At the young age of 23, a pygmy named Ota Benga was brought to New York by an explorer named Samuel Phillips Verner. Verner had no money at the time and was offered a loaner apartment on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo. Benga had already lived a life that most people couldn’t live across several lifetimes. He’d been widowed twice, escaped a massacre, and had been previously enslaved. Despite having a backstory that sounds like a superhero origin story, he was treated increasingly like an animal as opposed to receiving respect.
Benga was allowed to roam around the zoo grounds and was encouraged to do anything that would make him look like a savage. Before long, they were tricking him into enclosures to play with the primates and not letting him out. Eventually, he was attracting huge crowds and lots of national attention.
Many people protested such blatant abuse of a human being. It didn’t help that Verner thought pygmies were a subhuman race. Eventually, Benga was freed from the cage and allowed to roam the zoo grounds again. However, he was still followed and mocked everywhere he went, so he lashed out violently in frustration. He threatened a zookeeper with a knife and injured several visitors with his bow and arrow. Benga didn’t speak English and had no other way to communicate his torment.
Benga was eventually offered a chance to work elsewhere, where he wouldn’t be followed by people who viewed him as a human curiosity. He lived a decent life for a while afterward, taking various jobs and being treated much better than before. However, the pain of everything in his life and all that was done to him, as well as the stress of being in a strange new world, was too much for him. After a few years, he took his own life with a pistol.
2. The African Woman Was Displayed For An Extremely Degrading Reason
In the 19th century, a British Doctor named William Dunlop was visiting Africa. On his way home, he managed to convince an African woman named Sartje (also spelled Saartjie) to join him. While he may have given all sorts of reasons for wanting her to come, it soon became apparent that his motive was to put her on display for her rather strange body characteristics. She was renamed Sarah Bartman (or Baartman) in order to remove her old identity and make her sound more European. Sartje was then displayed all over Europe, sometimes for as much as 11 hours a day. She was always nude or mostly nude in order to display her strange characteristics.
Sartje had a rare condition known as steatopygia, wherein there is a large accumulation of fat in the area around the buttocks and and elongated genitalia. She was essentially paraded around as a freak show and sadly died of smallpox and alcoholism before too long. She was mocked horribly, and scientists questioned whether she might be the “missing link,” suggesting that she wasn’t even human in the first place. The poor woman was dissected after her death.
These sad stories remind us how awful humans can be to others for their own entertainment and how far we’ve come in a short amount of time. Today, such a thing would be completely unacceptable.
1. Controversial Reenactments Of Human Zoos
In 2014, a group of Norwegian artists decided to put on a historical reenactment of the human zoo that had been displayed in their country in 1914. The original exhibit involved dragging 80 black men and women to Oslo to be shown off and made to do various ethnic things in a village designed for tourists to walk through and explore. It wasn’t a particularly unique living village exhibit compared to many others at the time.
The artists who wanted to reenact it felt that many Norwegians were ignorant of the fact that such horrors happened in their own country. They wanted to remind their people that even a beacon of rights such as theirs can have horrors in its recent past.
There was also recently an exhibit in Edinburgh, Scotland, called “Plan B,” which was meant to show all of the various ways that black people were shown off and exploited in human exhibits.
The idea of the reenactments was instantly controversial. Some people were concerned that even if the motive behind the project was innocent, children in particular might have trouble with the nuance and simply come away with a disrespect for black people and perhaps even bully some of their black peers. Others felt that the actors involved would be taken advantage of once again, just like many years ago. On the other hand, those who supported the project argued that telling black people who were interested in being involved that they were being taken advantage of was yet another form of white paternalism.
The black actors involved in the Plan B exhibit felt that people were mature enough to understand the issue and that making people uncomfortable was the whole idea in the first place; you don’t make people think without leaving an impression on them. Despite this reasoning, such reenactments will always feel like a bad idea to those who consider such an event to be only a short step away from simply going back to the old days again.
Top image: Ota Benga (second from left) and other Africans at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Credit: The South Carolina Library/Wikimedia Commons.
Cats have always been popular pets and it's not hard to see why, they truly are fascinating creatures. But because they are so common, we tend to take their extraordinary abilities for granted. So now it's time for you to realize how awesome your cat really is.
10 Crazy Things You Didn’t Know About Burger King By Kristine Alexander, Toptenz, 28 March 2016.
Burger King has become an almost ubiquitous feature of the global landscape. With more than 13,000 locations across more than 70 countries, it’s hard to visit many cities, especially within the United States, which houses the majority of its outlets, without seeing at least one Burger King. However, despite its constant presence on roadsides worldwide, Burger King is still hiding some surprises, including the 10 shockers listed below.
10. BK Ended Over 200,000 Friendships
Burger King has created buzz with its unusual marketing tactics. One of its most original was 2009’s “Whopper Sacrifice” promotion. The promotion, offered via a Facebook application, offered users a free Whopper in exchange for unfriending 10 of their Facebook friends. In contrast to a normal Facebook unfriending, in which the “dumped” friend is not notified, Burger King’s application sent notifications to the 10 rejected friends, alerting them that their online friendship had been traded for (part of) a hamburger.
The app was wildly successful, with more than 80,000 users deleting more than 200,000 friends in a week. Facebook, however, was not amused. The company disabled the app after 10 days, claiming that the notification feature violated its privacy standards, stopping the promise of a free Whopper from ending any additional Facebook friendships.
9. BK Tried to Make Nice with McDonald’s
In 2015, in recognition of the United Nations’ International Peace Day on September 21, Burger King made a bold proposal to archrival McDonald’s. In full-page ads in the New York Time and the Chicago Tribune, Burger King asked McDonald’s to join it in a one-day truce in the “Burger Wars” between the two chains. Burger King proposed selling a “McWhopper,” a combo of both chain’s signature burgers in a one day pop-up location in Atlanta located between the two restaurants, staffed with employees of both chains. Proceeds would support Peace One Day, a non-profit organization that seeks to raise awareness of the International Day of Peace.
McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook was unimpressed with the gesture and quickly dismissed the possibility of a McWhopper. He further noted that the “friendly business competition” between the two companies in no way resembled “the real pain and suffering of war.” Burger King took its rejection in stride, partnering with other chains, including Denny’s, on its Peace Burger popup. McDonald’s, meanwhile, launched a separate ad campaign in support of the UN’s World Food Program.
8. The Whopper has a Hard to Find “Perfect Wine Pairing”
When Burger King sought to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its 1975 entry into Spain, it did so with a classy touch. The chain produced a limited edition wine, designed to pair perfectly with the Whopper. “Whopper wine,” as Burger King dubbed it, was produced in Spain, and aged in flame-grilled (by a Burger King broiler) barrels, to produce a flavor that would complement its burgers.
Unfortunately, this ideal beverage companion to the Whopper will remain unknown to most. Bottles of Whopper wine, which included a matching box (perhaps for ease of carrying into one’s local Burger King), were available only in Spain, and then only to forty winners of a contest to share your “Best Burger King story.” Which, in retrospect, is a contest they should have saved until after they started plying their customers with wine.
7. BK has a Secret Menu
Several quick-service restaurants offer items that aren’t on the menu, but that they will make if in-the-know customers request them. For example, In-N-Out’s secret menu includes “Animal Style fries,” which are topped with a mix of grilled onions, cheese and Thousand Island spread. And though there are no quesadillas on the menu at Chipotle, you can get one if you know to order it.
Burger King also has a secret menu of items that are available as long as the ingredients are there and the employees are game (It’s best not to try your luck during the lunch hour rush). Offerings include the BK Ham & Cheese (served hot or cold on a sesame seed bun), “Frings” - a half order of fries, half order of onion rings, certain to settle any marital squabble, and the Rodeo Burger, which features the addition of BBQ sauce and onion rings. However, the title for “most intense secret menu item” at Burger King goes to the aptly named “Suicide Burger.” Also known as the “Quad Stacker,” this monster burger includes 4 patties, 4 slices of cheese, bacon, and special sauce. If you know about the secret menu and have a death wish, about US$4, and a patient local Burger King employee, this giant ball of meat can be yours.
6. BK Briefly Offered Table Service
Table service? At Burger King? The idea of sitting down and having your food brought to your table at Burger King is hard to imagine. But if you missed the three-month period in 1992 when the chain rolled out table service, the only way that you will have this experience is in your imagination.
The idea behind table service was to attract new customers during the evening, traditionally a slow time of day for fast food restaurants. After ordering at the counter, guests were offered free baskets of popcorn to snack on while they awaited the arrival of their food, which could include choices from an upgraded dinner menu including steak sandwiches and fried shrimp, at their tables. Some locations even offered mood lighting and music.
Rival restaurant Wendy’s took a tongue-in-cheek approach to the upgraded experience offered by Burger King. Noting that Wendy’s did not plan to offer similar service, a Wendy’s spokesman said of Burger King’s table service (we’re sure with no hint of sarcasm at all) , “We think it’s fabulous. We hope Burger King spends millions of dollars on it.” That assessment would prove prophetic. Table service slowed down Burger King’s operations so much that the company lost millions of dollars, abandoning the foray into offering more upgraded service just a few months after it was launched.
5. BK Footed the Bill for One Lucky Couple’s Wedding
Ashley and Joel’s relationship has its roots in a history that will sound familiar to many couples. Friends since grade school, the two attended prom and homecoming together, but insisted to those around them that they were “just friends.” However, the two started dating in college and in 2015, Joel proposed.
This sounds like an ordinary love story, until you hear that Ashley’s last name is King, and Joel’s is Burger. After a guest speaker at their elementary school pointed out that together, they were “Burger-King,” the moniker stuck with the couple. When they got engaged, they took photos at a local Burger King, which soon went viral. The couple, who had hoped Burger King would provide some branded party favors or let them use the logo on wedding swag were in for a real treat. Burger King offered to pick up the whole tab for their Jacksonville, Illinois ceremony and reception - offering them “a whopper of a wedding,” delighting the stunned, and fortunately named, pair.
The Burger-King wedding, attended by approximately 400 guests, took place July 17, 2015. The couple, and their wedding party, donned cardboard Burger King crowns for some of their photos and the groom and groomsmen wore Burger King t-shirts hidden under their formalwear. The guests sipped out of custom Mason jars bearing the Burger King logo during the reception. The sign in front of the local Burger King celebrated the Burger-King wedding as well, reading “Congratulations Ashley and Joel.”
4. BK is Owned by a Canadian Donut Shop
Burger King seems as American as, well, the hamburger, which was invented in the US around the turn of the century. But as of 2014, Burger King is actually a Canadian company. How did this happen? Burger King merged with Tim Hortons, an iconic Canadian coffee and donut shop, and both companies were consolidated under the Restaurant Brands International holding company, headquartered in Canada.
The deal was controversial on both sides of the border. Americans protested the relocation of a highly symbolic company as part of a tax inversion transaction, a move which some said could save the company more than US$1 billion in US tax payments over the next several years. Meanwhile, Canadians and their lawmakers weren’t thrilled about the American takeover of their iconic brand, fearing job losses and a negative impact to national identity. The company, which denies that tax considerations were central to the merger decision, defends its merger decision as part of a larger strategy to aggressively pursue global expansion opportunities for both brands.
3. BK Had to Recall “Religiously Offensive” Ice Cream Desserts in the UK
When you think of controversial Burger King desserts, if anything comes to mind at all, it may be Burger King’s bacon sundae, which debuted to mixed reviews in 2012. But Burger King’s UK operations faced an entirely different controversy in 2005 over its ice cream desserts. In that case, it wasn’t even the dessert that caused the dustup - it was the packaging it came in.
The lid on the ice cream treat depicted a rotating ice cream cone. But at least one horrified customer - Rashad Akthar of High Wycombe - saw something else entirely. Akthar claimed that the design resembled the Arabic inscription for Allah, causing offense to Muslims. He urged a boycott of Burger King, calling the issue, “my jihad.” Burger King promptly recalled the questionable cones, apologizing and redesigning the lid in concert with the backing of the Muslim Council of Britain. At the same time, the chain insisted that the original design, “simply represents a spinning ice-cream cone.”
2. BK’s “Black Whopper” Has an…Unusual…Side Effect
Health experts have long warned of the negative consequences of a long-term diet heavy in fast food. But Burger King’s A1 Halloween Whopper, which appeared as a limited-time holiday menu item in the US in October of 2015 had a more immediate, and colorful, impact on the digestive systems of those who consumed it, producing bright green poop.
The A1 Halloween Whopper, a burger in a black bun, is the American version of a similar item sold in Burger King’s Japanese locations. The company indicates that the black bun of this burger comes from having A1 steak sauce baked in. But it’s clear to at least one medical professional that that deep color didn’t come just from A1, but rather, from food coloring - and a lot of it. The dye used on the bun of the Black Whopper travels through your system, emerging with a jaunty green hue. Luckily, this spooky side effect, much like the A1 Halloween Whopper that produces it, exists only on a temporary basis.
1. BK has a Special Crown Gold Card Available Only to Celebrities
Ahhh, the perks of being famous: private jets, deluxe hotel suites, personal assistants to cater to your every whim. But there’s one perk that a small subset of the rich and famous enjoy that you may not have anticipated: unlimited free Burger King food.
Burger King has offered its “Crown Card” since 2006. For ordinary folks, this works just like any other prepaid gift card (the one pictured above is an ordinary Crown Card, if you were curious). But some celebrities, at least 12 that we know of, have been given an upgraded Burger King gold crown card. Why is this card special? It entitles the bearer to unlimited free food from Burger King…for life. We’ll leave it to you to determine if this is a reward, or a punishment.
How do you get one of these coveted cards? Even for top-tier celebrities, getting the gold crown card is a rare achievement, with fewer in circulation than, say, Oscar statuettes. Chris Koster, who manages the program for Burger King, notes, “We’ve been extremely thoughtful about who receives them for life.”
Some celebrity cardholders, including Jennifer Hudson and My Name is Earl creator Greg Garcia, got theirs because, at one point in their careers, they worked at Burger King. George Lucas earned his by always partnering with Burger King on releases of his blockbuster movies. Hugh Laurie of House fame, got his after joking that he had one in an interview; the claim garnered so much free PR for Burger King that the company happily added him the 12th celebrity gold crown card holder.
