North York Central Library Blog

Food is my most honoured guest at any party.  Food smells great.  Food is delicious.  Food can even be art.  These days, food creativity abounds, especially with television shows like Iron Chef and Top Chef Canada.  That said, creative dishes and beverages considered unusual are still the most interesting to read about.

The most unusual dish is what is known as “bacon turtleburgers."  Relax – they aren’t made from turtles.  Rather, they’re made from cows and pigs!  They consist of beef patties, with melted cheese, wrapped in bacon strips.  For added effect, hotdogs are inserted in the place of a head, legs and a tail.    Although I’ve never tasted such a creation, it may be something to write home about.

Speaking of burgers, New York’s Time Square Burger King introduced, what they call a “pizza burger”, last fall.  Consisting of 4 beef patties and favourite pizza toppings, this delight sits in between a 9 ½ inch sesame seed bun and is 2500 calories!  Can anyone say B-U-R-P?

Perhaps dessert would be a little healthier, if we were sampling fruit from Europe.  The Pineberry is a breed of white strawberry, concocted using 2 different strawberry plants from both North and South America.  A double-dose of strawberry would have us believe that it tastes, well, like a strawberry, but in fact, it tastes like pineapple!  Due to its difficult manufacture however, pineberries are only available in European restaurants and bakeries, where they were originally developed.

And finally, why don’t we wash it all down with “Tru Blood O Positive” carbonated beverage.  That’s right.  Thanks to our recent interest in vampire entertainment, Omni Consumer Products have developed a synthetic blood drink, used in many onscreen vampire dramas.   

Learn more about unusual dishes and recipes with these titles below:

Want to find out why tea tastes better once it’s been through an insect’s digestive tract?  Canadian author, Dr. Massimo Francesco Marcone answers this and more within the pages of his two books, In Bad Taste? and Acquired Tastes, both of which cover international foods considered delicacies. 

Fierce Food by Christa Weil, for that reader who enjoys bizarre “tails” about armadillos, live monkey brains, and dung beetle larvae and their potential to serve as food.

Finally, Don’t Try This at Home : Culinary Catastrophes from the World’s Greatest Chefs edited by Kimberly Witherspoon and Andrew Friedman, share with us what NOT to do in the kitchen.

For more books about food and fun recipes, visit the Science & Technology Department at the North York Central Library.