Culinary subversion (Pancake Puff vs. Moffle)

A while back, G-man tipped me off in the comments that he’d found something pretty funny: Pancake Puffs, which seem an awful like something we’re used to seeing in Japan all the time (incidentally, I love how Google asks if you meant “teriyaki” when you search for “takoyaki”). Check it out:
pancake-puffs.jpg
I guess this can only be described as the result of a firesale at a takoyaki pan factory.
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Word of the day: Moffle

What is a moffle?
Waffle is Mochi + Waffle, much in the way that “lion” + “tiger” = “liger” (or “tigon”)
I don’t have a problem with the moffle in theory, however, there are certain aspects of its execution that lack a certain, erm, appetizability. Case in point:
shiokaramoffle.jpg
Front and center is a shiokara moffle… Um.
Shiokara + mochi + waffle = interesting projectile vomit
Let me explain. From the wikipedia entry on shiokara:

Shiokara (??) is a food in Japanese cuisine made from various marine animals that consists of small pieces of the animal’s meat in a brown viscous paste of the animal’s heavily salted, fermented viscera. The raw viscera are mixed with about 10% salt, 30% malted rice, packed in a closed container, and fermented for up to a month.

Bon appetit! One of the worst kitchen chores I can possibly think of is having to clean burnt shiokara off of a waffle iron, but to each his own I guess.

Liukowleezation

translate-servererror.jpg
This photo has been floating around for a month, usually with a variant of this explanation:

“Preparing for English-speaking visitors, a restaurant in China recently ran its name through an online translator, took the result, then purchased and mounted a large sign displaying the English version of their name: Translate Server Error.”

I tend to be a bit more suspicious – whoever thought up this viral photo strategy is a freakin’ genius! I hope they make money hand over capitalism-loving fist as a result of this brilliant web strategy.

Thailand Gas Crisis?

It’s not unusual to pull into a gas station up here in the Northeast region only to find your favorite petroleum formulation (95 benzene, 95 gasohol [E10 / E20], 91 benzene, 91 gasohol, diesel, palm diesel, B5 [5% biodiesel], LPG [Liquified Petroleum Gas], and CNG [Compressed Natural Gas], which is one of the two kinds of NGV [Natural Gas Variation]) sold out, or in the case of 95 benzene, no longer being sold at all, or in the case of LPG and especially CNG, simply not yet available.
At the PTT station in front of my university (the uni actually owns it) this morning, they were out of everything (they sell 91/95 gasohol, 91 benzene, straight-up diesel, and 5% biodiesel fomulation). There were ad hoc “sold out” signs taped to each individual pump (maybe 24 in all) and the staff were all sitting around on the pump islands. They didn’t even bother telling the cars pulling in for gas that they were out, they would just laconically point to the signs in between slacking off and playing grabass with their coworkers.
It made me wonder why they didn’t just put a big sign up at the entrance so that people didn’t pull in and waste their time, but as they say, This Is Thailand.
P.S. Until now I’ve very rarely posted negative commentary on this blog regarding my country of current residence, for one simple reason – If there’s one thing I hate it’s the recent arrivals to a country complaining about this and that and I vowed never to be one of them long ago. Having almost been here two years now though, I feel I can begin complaining with a bit of authority. ; )
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Related link: Retail oil price list from the Energy Policy & Planning Office of Thailand’s Ministry of Energy