Meet the $1,000 pizza..

A New York restaurateur has cooked up the most world's most extravagant pizza -- a $1,000 pizza topped with six sorts of caviar and fresh lobster.

Nino Selimaj, who runs six pizza restaurants in New York, on Wednesday unveiled his Luxury Pizza, a 12 inch (30 cms), thin crust topped with caviar, lobster, creme fraiche and chives. Cut into eight, it works out at $125 a slice.

"I know this won't be for everyone but there are people in New York who can afford it and once tried, they'll be back for more. It is delicious," said Selimaj, who moved to New York from Albania about 29 years ago.

"Sure, some people will say it is just a publicity stunt but I have researched this for over a year and think there is a demand. I have already sold one."

Selimaj said his restaurant Nino's Bellissima, which is the only one of his restaurants to offer the Luxury Pizza, needs 24 hours notice for the gourmet dish as it orders the caviar in advance.

"But where better to experiment with pizza than in New York where people love their pizza," he said.

If diners are still peckish after the Luxury Pizza, they can always head over to the midtown restaurant Serendipity that sells a $1,000 ice-cream sundae called Golden Opulence which is covered in 23K edible gold leaf.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

123-Pound Burger sets New Record

Clearfiled Mayor Patty Gilliland poses Saturday, Feb. 24, 2007, with Denny Leigey, owner of Dennys Beer Barrel Pub, and the restaurants record-breaking burger in Clearfield, Pa. The pub's Beer Barrel Main Event Charity Burger weighs in at 123 pounds (55.79 kilos) and is sold for $379 (288 Euro). Its cooks maintain the meaty monstrosity shatters the world record of 105 pounds (47.6 kilos) shared by two restaurants in New Jersey and Thailand and they are filing a claim with the Guinness Book of Records.

The newest addition to the menu at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub is one whopper of a burger. The Beer Barrel Main Event Charity Burger weighs in at 123 pounds, a meaty monstrosity that its cooks maintain shatters the world record of 105 pounds shared by two restaurants in New Jersey and Thailand.

The sizable sandwich features an 80-pound beef patty, along with a pound each of lettuce, ketchup, relish, mustard and mayonnaise, 160 slices of cheese, up to five onions and 12 tomatoes.

It's topped with a couple of pounds of banana peppers, then sandwiched into a 30-pound bun. Don't forget the garnish of 33 pickles.

There's a pretty hefty price tag, too: $379.

The Clearfield pub unveiled the menu item over the weekend. Restaurant owner Denny Leigey said he plans to submit paperwork on his colossal culinary creation to the Guinness Book of World Records.

It's not the first time that Leigey has waded into the competition for the world's biggest burger. He drew headlines a couple years ago when he unveiled the Beer Barrel Belly Buster, which weighed in at a mere 15 pounds.

Leigey said he didn't know how many calories were stuffed into his latest gigantic entree.

''If you were worried about calories you would be at home eating Kellogg's,'' he said.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Rats Run Wild in KFC in New York

NEW YORK - New Yorkers are used to seeing rats where they catch their trains — not where they buy their burritos. About a dozen rats were having a grand party Friday in a locked KFC/Taco Bell restaurant, scampering around the floor, playing with each other and sniffing for food as they dashed around tables and children's high chairs.

Onlookers could not keep their eyes away from the jaw-dropping sight — a gang of urban vermin invading a restaurant that had been taking people's chicken and taco orders just a day earlier. Video of the rats was seen around the world, disseminated on TV stations and the Internet.

"All you can eat once the store is locked," one onlooker joked.

"They should handcuff them and throw the dirty rats in jail," cabbie Wilson Paul said as he pulled over to gawk.

Word spread after a TV crew discovered the rat infestation Friday morning and filmed it through a window of the Greenwich Village building.

Health inspectors arrived, and the parent company for KFC and Taco Bell, Yum Brands, Inc., was again forced into damage-control mode a few months after enduring an E. coli outbreak.

The restaurant was not open when the rats were spotted. The company said construction in the basement on Thursday appeared to have stirred up the rodents.

"This is completely unacceptable and is an absolute violation of our high standards," Yum Brands said in a statement.

Rats have long been a problem in densely populated New York City. They are frequently seen scampering through subway tunnels, rooting through trash, dashing across parks and burrowing into the walls of apartment buildings.

Greenwich Village tends to be a happy home for them because of its combination of older buildings and a tangle of subway lines converging just below street level.

Still, it is rare to see so many rats congregating in one place in such public view.

The city Department of Health had inspectors at the site on Friday for hours, and by midday had posted a sign that read "CLOSED."

"Today, this establishment had serious unsanitary conditions," said Carol Feracho, a senior health inspector. "There were issues with vermin throughout."

She said the infestation was "coming from the building," with "openings" that allowed the vermin to enter. She provided no other details.

There was no answer at the phone number displayed in neon on the store window below the words, "We Deliver." Health Department records list the franchise owner as ADF Fifth Operating Corp., agency spokeswoman Sara Markt said.

The owner could not be reached for comment, despite numerous efforts.

The franchise owner "is actively addressing this issue," Yum Brands' statement said, adding that the restaurant will remain closed until the problem is resolved.

Joel Cohen, who lives in the building next to the restaurant, had a graphic view of the situation.

"This place is a disaster," said Cohen, who works in real estate. "They throw their rubbish in the doorways. It's loaded up with food in bags that are not tied, and the rats have eaten through the bags."

Taco Bell sales have slumped since last year's E. coli scare, in which more than 70 East Coast customers became ill. Federal officials said lettuce was the most likely source, and the company has changed suppliers.

Yum Brands stock closed Friday at $60.51, down 55 cents.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Belgian Valentines to squeak of love

BRUSSELS, Feb 14 (Reuters Life!) - Belgians tired of giving chocolate treats and flowers for Valentine's Day will be able to spend the evening squeaking out declarations of love in a bar selling helium.

The bar, which normally offers oxygen, is encouraging customers to inhale helium, which distorts the voice, giving a high-pitched cartoon-character sound for a funny effect.

"Valentine's Day is a special day for couples but its possible to have a party with just two. I wanted to make a different kind of party. Also people who are alone can come here and have some fun," said Gerard Bazzone, co-owner of the Pure Bar.

But patrons should be wary of pledging undying love repeatedly as too much helium can cause asphyxiation.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Beer + Milk = Bilk

TOKYO - Great news for beer and milk lovers: A liquor shop owner in Japan's largest dairy farming region has stopped crying about local spilled milk and started making beer from it instead.

"We came up with the idea after hearing about surplus milk," said Chitoshi Nakahara, head of the Nakahara liquor shop on the northernmost island of Hokkaido.

Milk consumption has been declining steadily in Japan, and Hokkaido disposed of nearly 900 tonnes of milk last March due to over-production, according to the Japan Dairy Association.

Nakahara's new brew, "Bilk" -- a combination of "milk" and "beer" -- is about 30 percent milk. It also contains hops, and the production process does not differ much from that of regular beer, he said.

His shop started selling Bilk, which apart from a slight milky scent looks and tastes like ordinary beer, on February 1 after spending about six months developing the product with a local brewer.

Bilk is only available at six local shops or by mail order, but Nakahara is currently out of stock due to heavy media attention.

Don't worry if you can't get hold of any, though: Nakahara also sells beer brewed from another major Hokkaido product -- potatoes.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Chocolate Treat, comes with a Finger!

FRANKFURT - A man in Germany was put off his Italian chocolate treat when he noticed that a bump in the bar was not a nut but part of a human finger.

"He found a fingertip, complete with fingernail, right in the middle of the bar," said a police spokesman in the town of Mainz, close to Frankfurt.

"I suppose it went unnoticed because there were nuts in the chocolate and it was hard to tell the difference," the police spokesman said, adding the fingertip was being examined by forensic experts.

The 28-year-old man was in shock when he took the bar to police after a family doctor confirmed its contents.

Police declined to name the brand of the chocolate.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Forbidden City May Close Starbucks

Beijing's Forbidden City may close down its Starbucks in the face of growing protests that the presence of a U.S. coffee shop in the former imperial palace is an insult to Chinese culture, a newspaper said on Thursday.

An online campaign initiated by a television host to drive Starbucks out of the Forbidden City had won the backing of more than half a million Internet users, the official China Daily reported on Thursday.

Rui Chenggang, an anchorman on state television channel CCTV9, wrote in his blog that Starbucks' presence at the Forbidden City was "not globalising, but trampling, Chinese culture", the paper said.

"The museum is working with Starbucks to find a solution by this June in response to the protests," Xinhua news agency quoted museum spokesman Feng Nai'en as saying.

"Whether or not Starbucks remains depends on the entire design plan that will be released in the first half of the year."

Feng said that as part of a facelift, shops in the Forbidden City were being "reassigned" and that one-third had already been removed.

The rectangular Forbidden City, formally known as the Palace Museum, covers 74 hectares (183 acres) surrounded by a moat to the north of Tiananmen Square and has a fabled 9,999 rooms. It was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1987.

The Starbucks outlet opened in 2000 amid a media backlash so severe that the museum authorities considered revoking its lease after a couple of months.

Starbucks Vice President for Greater China Eden Woon was quoted by the Beijing News as saying the company had no plan to leave the site.

"Starbucks appreciates the deep history and culture of the Forbidden City and has operated in a respectful manner that fits within the environment," he told Reuters.

"We have provided a welcome place of rest for thousands of tourists, both Chinese and foreign, for more than six years. We are honoured to have the opportunity, under an agreement with the Forbidden City, to enhance visitors' museum experience."

In 2002, public protests led to a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet being booted out of Beihai Park, a former royal garden neighbouring the Forbidden City.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Spicy Foods Can Kill Cancers

Scientists have discovered the key to the ability of spicy foods to kill cancer cells.

They found capsaicin, an ingredient of jalapeno peppers, triggers cancer cell death by attacking mitochondria - the cells' energy-generating boiler rooms.

The research raises the possibility that other cancer drugs could be developed to target mitochondria.

The Nottingham University study features in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.

The study showed that the family of molecules to which capsaicin belongs, the vanilloids, bind to proteins in the cancer cell mitochondria to trigger apoptosis, or cell death, without harming surrounding healthy cells.


Capsaicin was tested on cultures of human lung cancer cells and on pancreatic cancers.
Lead researcher Dr Timothy Bates said: "As these compounds attack the very heart of the tumour cells, we believe that we have in effect discovered a fundamental 'Achilles heel' for all cancers.

"The biochemistry of the mitochondria in cancer cells is very different from that in normal cells.
"This is an innate selective vulnerability of cancer cells."

He said a dose of capsaicin that could cause a cancer cell to enter apoptosis, would not have the same effect on a normal cell.



The fact that capsaicin and other vanilloids are already commonly found in the diet proves they are safe to eat.

This could make development of a drug containing them a much quicker and cheaper process.

Dr Bates said: "Capsaicin, for example, is already found in treatments for muscle strain and psoriasis - which raises the question of whether an adapted topical treatment could be used to treat certain types of skin cancer.

"It's also possible that cancer patients or those at risk of developing cancer could be advised to eat a diet which is richer in spicy foods to help treat or prevent the disease."

However, Josephine Querido, cancer information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "This research does not suggest that eating vast quantities of chilli pepper will help prevent or treat cancer.

"The experiments showed that pepper extracts killed cancer cells grown in the laboratory, but these have not yet been tested to see if they are safe and effective in humans."

Cancer Research UK recommends reducing the risk of cancer by eating a healthy, balanced diet, with plenty of vegetables and fruit.

Dr Bates added that the mitochondria in cancer cells could also be targeted by other compounds.
He said the investigation and development of anti-mitochondrial drugs for cancer chemotherapy was likely to be "extremely significant" in the fight against cancer.



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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Food from Cloned Animals Safe To Eat

Milk and meat from some cloned animals are safe to eat, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday in a draft ruling that brings the controversial technology closer to American grocery carts.

If given final approval, the ruling would allow for the sale of food made from cloned cattle, pigs and goats, but not sheep, in the United States for the first time.

The agency said it would be unlikely to recommend special labels for food made from clones, which are genetic twins of donor animals, but would not decide on the labeling issue until it collects comments from the public over the next 90 days.

"No unique risks for human food consumption were identified in cattle, swine or goat clones," it said.

The FDA did not have enough evidence to give the same assurance on sheep clones, but it did vouch for food made from clones' offspring, which many believe would account for most of the clone-related food making its way onto dinner tables.

Making clones of animals works by taking cells from an adult and fusing them with other cells before implanting them in a surrogate mother. A relatively small amount of cloned livestock now exists in the United States.

The FDA stressed it will maintain its current moratorium on the food until a final ruling is issued.



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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Its Christmas, Have a Little more Bat Meat!

Dogs, bats, Kentucky Fried Chicken and barramundi will grace dinner tables across the Asia Pacific this Christmas, a festival celebrated with lots of cheer, and very little turkey, in this mainly non-Christian region.

Christmas Day is seen as a foreign, Western festival in many countries in Asia but that doesn't stop millions of people from cooking up banquets of local food unheard of in the West.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country which also has a substantial Christian community, Christmas feasts include delicacies such as pork soaked in blood and dog meat.


"We usually hold a family gathering at our parents' house or in-laws' house after Christmas eve mass," said Ermida Simanjuntak, a Batak Christian Indonesian. "We do not exchange gifts, we use this event more to meet and talk."

In the eastern island of Sulawesi, some Manado Christians swear by kawok, or garden rats, cooked with chilies and garlic, and paniki, or bats, cooked in coconut milk.

"Paniki's meat tastes almost the same as kawok but it has more muscles," said Manadonese Stephen Lapian. "But if you cut the arm pit in a wrong way, it will be very stinky."

In Japan, many people head to Kentucky on Christmas -- Kentucky Fried Chicken, that is!

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]