Nissen Food’s Cup Noodle has combined two of my favorite things, Gundam and food, into one brilliant promotion. Each of these special Chili Tomato Cup Noodle flavors comes with a different 1/380 mobile suit piloted by Char Aznable. The 3 Times Spicier Chili Tomato Noodle comes with Char’s Z’Gok, the regular Chili Tomato Noodles comes with Char’s Zaku II, and the Red Cheese Chili Tomato Noodle comes with Char’s Gelgoog. You can pick these up at convenience stores starting August 2nd for ¥578 per cup which is about $6.63 USD.
But wait! There’s more!
Included with each Char Noodle is a ticket. Send that in to Nissin Food along with your personal details and you could win one of 1000 Master Grade Char’s Zaku II Ver. 2.0 Clear Color version molded in clear red plastic! The campaign begins August 2nd and ends October 31st. Another damn reason to book a flight!
This is video footage of champion eater Takeru Kobayashi being led away in handcuffs from this year’s Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. Kobayashi was not allowed to compete because he refused to sign a contract with MLE, Major League Eating. The MLE contract only allows eaters to compete in MLE sanctioned events. Kobayashi wanted the freedom to compete in events sponsored by other organizations. So he did not appear as a competitor in this year’s Nathan’s hot do eating contest.
However, he did attend the event. Wearing a “Free Kobi” shirt, Kobayashi joined the crowd at this year’s event. When the contest ended, he took to a side stage to shake hands with fans and supporters. Police officers took him away in handcuffs when Kobayashi refused to leave the stage.
Shame on you MLE for letting things get this far out of hand! The shitty thing about the MLE contract is that there are no guarantees of payment or anything like that. Preventing competitors from attending other events cuts off potential sources of income. It would make sense if there was at least a performance fee or something to that effect, but there are no such guarantees. I don’t think MLE is big enough to demand that kind of loyalty. Let your eaters earn some money until you can guarantee something other than just the chance to compete.
Angry Zen Minion Charles Gulotta sends news that the Gundam Cafe is now open for business in Akihabara, Japan! They have tasty Gundam treats including these RX-78 cookies:
It is now imperative that I go to Japan. This place must be experienced first-hand. Pictures are not enough.
The only thing that kind of disappoints me is the barista’s uniform. I mean, come on. You got a Gundam themed cafe, you got Gundam cookies, you got Gundam memorabilia on the walls, can’t you at least get the baristas a Feddie or Zeon uniform?
If you follow me on twitter and facebook, you’ll note that I talk a lot about food. Well, they always tell you to blog about what you love so I’ve gone ahead and started up a food blog. Enter the Mochi A Go-Go!
I don’t have a specific update schedule, but I’ll be posting photos of yummy treats along with information on where they were acquired. If there’s a link available, I’ll link it up so if you see something you might want to try, you can find it.
I hope you’re hungry because the Mochi A Go-Go is open for business!
For those who want to experience diabetes, these Giant Chewy Nerd things will put you on the fast track. Seriously, this is more sugar than even I can handle. Normally, a bag of candy would be gone in a week around me. This thing has been in the apartment for a freaking month now. I’m sure you can find these bad boys in your favorite grocer’s candy of doom aisle.
The few times I’ve been to Toronto, I was always impressed with their street vendor hot dogs which they call “Street Meat” which are quite amazing. The hot dogs are boiled and kept warm in water. Then when you order one, they grill it up on a small grill in the cart. UH MAY ZING!
Unfortunately, I never made it out west to Vancouver. If I had, I would never have left. Not only do they have those same UH MAY ZING grilled dogs, but they put all kinds of Japanese condiments on them! Bratwurst with Edamame? Jalapeno and cheese smokie with seawead, Teriyaki, and Japanese mustard? Kurobuta with bonito flakes, fried cabbage, Japanese mayo, okonomiyaki sauce? KOBE BEEF DOG?! YES PLEASE!
Oh sure, the Olympics are kind of a big deal. But I will always now remember Vancouver as the genius city that invented Japa Dogs! GIMME GIMME NOW!
There was something missing from our Super Bowl celebration last night and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until just now. We didn’t have any Kamen Cider! The Kamen Cider cans feature the design of some of the most powerful Showa Riders. Each can has a little snippet of trivia on the Rider they’re designed after and little info about one of their deadly Shocker Kaijin foes.
I really love all the designs, but I think I’m partial to Nigo’s right there at the end. It’s got the typhoon henshin action that just screams RIDER KICK! If there is a Kamen Rider god, there will be cases of this stuff in the dealer’s room this weekend at Katsucon so that I may grab a case or four.
Now before we go off the handle and call for a nation-wide boycott of Kentucky Fried Chicken for being racist, this commercial was never intended to be viewed by Americans. This was done by an Australian ad agency to advertise KFC in Australia where this light-hearted poke at the West Indian cricket team would not be all that offensive. The commercial was put online without the agency’s knowledge (thanks TMZ).
I know we have a few Australian readers of AZM. Can any of you chime in to tell us the context? I understand that KFC is a sponsor of the West Indian cricket team so that aspect of the joke makes sense. I don’t know what race relations are like in Australia so I won’t presume to judge until I’m given the okay.
Thursday, December 24th, 2009 at 11:11 am by Jamie
One of these days, I will fry a whole goddamn turkey. Of course, this day is not that day. And as long as I live in a condo, that day will be far far away. But some tasty day, I will fry the shit out of a turkey! Alton Brown makes everything look deliciously easy. So if turkey is on your menu tonight or tomorrow night and you want to fry that fucker dead in the eye, trust in Alton.
Not gonna be around a computer tomorrow folks so enjoy your holidays. I’ll see ya Monday!
If you follow me on twitter, this weekend you would have seen these crazy pics pop up. They were taken at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, CA which is a must see destination for all your drooling sugar minions out there. Instead of spending the day after Thanksgiving battling the crowds to buy tons of shit that we don’t need (the dreaded Black Friday), my family and I took a drive out to Fairfield to get our fill of Jelly Belly jelly beans, MY MOST FAVORITE CANDY EVER!
The Jelly Belly factory gives visitors free tours of their working facility. You get to see every step of the bean-making process. Unfortunately, the factory itself was closed for the weekend so none of the machines were on and none of the workers were on the floor. But it was still really cool to see all the machines and to see trays of beans in various stages of completion. At each stop of the tour, there are video monitors that give you a short history of the Jelly Belly company and quick run down of the various stations you’re looking at. The most surprising thing for me was the number of actual people it takes to make a Jelly Belly. I figured much of the process would be automated by now, but it turns out that a good number of people are employed to oversee the various stages of the process. Lots of people hands are involved in each bean. Fully automated robots are used for packaging and that’s about it. Everything else requires a human touch.
We have former President, California Governor, and actor Ronald Reagan to thank for the popularity of Jelly Belly jelly beans. Apparently, he used to pass around bowl fulls during meetings when he was governor. The state press got a hold of the story and sales of Jelly Bellys took off. When he was elected President, Jelly Belly made a blueberry bean so that jars of red, white, and blue Jelly Bellys could be handed out at Reagan’s inauguration. This portrait of Reagan done entirely with Jelly Bellys is the very first Jelly Belly portrait ever created. It hangs in the lobby of the store.
I wish there were videos of the artists putting together these Jelly Belly art pieces. This grizzly bear that greeted us before the tour began is absolutely stunning. There are more examples at their online art gallery.
Yes, that is a pizza shaped like a Jelly Belly. I ordered a medium because I figured it would be medium. Ah… no. This pizza was freaking HUGE! I could not finish it all by myself. Wasn’t expecting much from a cafeteria pizza, but the crust was actually really nice and crunchy. Very impressed. But the best part of our lunch was the potato chips. They must cut them or cook them on site because they were thicker than any store-bought chip I’ve ever had. You could see the raw the potato on parts that were stuck together and never hit the oil. Really impressed with the quality of the chips.
At the end of your tour, they give you a complimentary bag of assorted jelly beans. You can also hit up the tasting bar and get as many free jelly beans as you want. I highly suggest the new Chili Mango flavor. Sweet and spicy and fucking awesome! If you imagine yourself dying of diabetes in a jelly bean filled Chuck E Cheese ball room, this is the place to stock up.
Apparently, not every bean is worthy of the Jelly Belly name. Those beans that are too small or too big or misshapen are called “Belly Flops.” $10 will get you a 2lb. bag of Belly Flops that in some ways turn out to be more fun than eating the regular ones. They also sell Extreme Sport Beans which is just too douchey to say without laughing. Seriously, caffeinated Jelly Bellys is not what you want. Ever.
We had a lot of fun on the tour and I’d love to come back to see the factory with people working it. If you’re ever out Fairfield way, or San Francisco (it’s only an hour away), make a point to head out to the Jelly Belly factory. Yes, you will probably get adult onset diabetes from all the free Jelly Bellys you’ll stuff in your face. But it’s a fine tasty way to die.
Bonus: Hey look! I found a video of the tour! They wouldn’t let us take any photos, but apparently, they let these people video tape the thing!
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