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The Wall Street Journal recently had an article about Ivan Orkin’s Tampopo-style quest to create a bowl of Ramen in American that would finally rival those found in Japan.  No, not Top Ramen, but real Ramen: fresh broth, hard boiled eggs, slices of meat, and a variety of vegetables!

A great story of a culinary obsession, cross-cultural lessons, and American entrepreneurship. Yum!

Check out a video of Ivan showing off his modified Ramen recipe.

The New York Times had an article today on edible films made out of food: thyme, vegetables, and more.  Besides the obvious use in dishes such as sushi (see above), it’s also being considered for use in deterring bacteria and microorganism growth.  Neat!

spam : bacn :: emails from nigeria : emails from facebook

We’re starting to see another food product appropriated to categorize yet another type of emails that have begun to flood our inboxes.

Spam, of course, is either the yummy Hormel meat product or unwanted emails from that prince guy in Nigeria or offer to get a college diploma, really cheap.

Now, here’s “bacn” –

ba·cn

Pronunciation:
\ˈbā-kən sometimes -k^əŋ\

Function:
noun

1: email notifications you want. but not right now. Those notifications, newsletters, project notifications, updates etc. that you sign up for and really, really want to keep up to date on but don’t seem to have the time for right now… (from techburgh.com)

Spam : Gross, Avoid :: Bacn : Should avoid but love it just so much

Friend requests from Facebook, requests from LinkedIn, oh my.

Considering the issues Hormel had with the use of spam to describe unwanted emails, perhaps it’s best that bacn describes an entire food group (!) rather than a particular brand.

Is this a good moniker for this phemonemon?

Our extreme familiarity with food can sometimes lead us to take food and its accessories for granted. In the brand new issue 7 of Ambidextrous, we hope to cast your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night snack into a new light and give you some food for thought.

View the table of contents and preview selected articles in the issue and subscribe today.

Last night Ambidextrous had the launch party for the hot off the press Issue 7 Food. Our thanks to the Google UX group for hosting us.  The warm summer night combined on the Google patio combined with food prepared by staff of the Google cafes made it the perfect setting for the Food issue.

Check out some photos of the Issue 7 launch party.

Did you take photos we can share? Let us know.

I scream, you scream, we all scream… for the latest issue of Ambidextrous Magazine, Issue 7: FOOD!

AMBIDEXTROUS MAGAZINE Journal of Design
Issue 7: Food!
Launch Party

Thursday, August 16, from 6:30 – 9:30 pm

Hosted by Google User Experience!

*** RSVP IS REQUESTED go to http://www.ambidextrousmag.org/party.

Google Patio (near Buildings 40 and 43)
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, California
Come talk about Breast Pumps * Brand and Flavor * Ramen Design Guide * Twinkies * TRIZ in the Supermarket * Cooking Lessons for Designers * Foreign Groceries

There will be tasty treats to snack on, food for thought to munch on, and the best company the Bay Area’s design community has to offer.

Though Issue 7: Food is almost back from the printers, we’re still coming across fascinating stories of food and design.

Read how Go-Gurt, designed in part by Susan Squires (then of GVO), resolves parents’ tension between employment and nurturing kids, as well as the tension between letting kids have fun and making sure they’re nourished.

“While Mom was telling us about the nutritious lunch, she had just made for her two sons; Kevin left the table. He returned with a bowl of red, whiteand blue sugar pebble crisp cereal and milk. Meanwhile Mom was showing us how she got her kids to eat fresh fruit by mixing it into the kid’s yogurt. She paid no attention to Kevin as he ate his cereal.”

The story of Go-Gurt at the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology

There’s nothing like a trip to another culture to expand your horizons – and China is just the place to expand culinary horizons. This year Ambidextrous’ Phoebe Kuo captured these appetizing and mind-expanding snacks for us at a market in Beijing. The scorpions, cocoons and locusts are particularly eyecatching.

To celebrate Issue 7 (“Food”) at the presses, Ambidextrous Editors paid a visit to a local Food-icon: the Mountain View 7-11 that’s been redecorated as a Kwik-E-Mart! Find a Kwik-E-Mart near you!

As Ambidextrou Issue 7: Food approaches, another food tale to wet your palate…

A recent article in The New York Times called “Wasabi to the People: Big Chains Evolve or Die” explores why some new foods make it big, and why others don’t.  It explores why Meyer Lemons are hot, why one company is waiting for Goat Cheese to hit it big again, and whether or not whole grains will become the next chipotle.