My Science School

Think you and your friends have such a vociferous appetite that you can eat a mountain of food easily? Think again! This month we're going to delve into the fantastic world of the most outrageous food challenges that have shaken up the most passionate eaters among us.

This can be quite long

A good sandwich is one that is big and filling. However, a 27-inch long sandwich weighing 12 pounds is a bit too much, especially when one person has to finish it. It is loaded with fatty goodness - cheese steak, cheese burgers (what?), bacon, chicken, pastrami, mozzarella cheese, fried eggs, onion rings, jalapenos poppers, chili, marinara sauce and a fat sauce, whatever that is. More than 800 people have tried it, but only two have succeeded, and both were professional eaters. You get the $50 burger for free if you succeed to eat it in 40 minutes and also the chance to name one of the sandwiches on their menu.

The 'Boss' of all burgers

Bring along the ten best foodies you know and the bet is that you'll still not be able to polish off this mammoth burger in an hour. Weighing 105 pounds (that's about the weight of a baby rhino) and measuring 28 inches in diameter and standing majestic and tall at 11.5 inches, this burger is not only the world's biggest, it is also an unconquered beast! The prize money of $5000 has eluded all so far.

Bet you thought this is a food challenge for kids. Nope! It's so called because the mighty breakfast weighs about as much as a little kid. Burp! So let's see what's in it: Only 9 pounds of bacon, sausages, mushrooms, potatoes, black pudding, beans, bread, eggs, tomatoes and hash browns. Just 6000 calories! Pack it all into your stomach in under an hour, and a free meal is all yours. Any takers?

Taste the heat

While most food contests rely heavily on size, this genius challenge is all about how much heat you can handle. Twenty minutes is allotted to polishing off this moderate-sized pizza and licking the plate and your fingers clean. This shouldn't be so tough but turns out that the pizza is packed with fresh jalapenos, habaneros and ghost peppers! In case you didn't know, ghost peppers are the spiciest chillies in the world, right on the very top of the red hotness scale! The hosts of this challenge are kind enough to let you have a glass of water, but no napkins allowed. For a mention in the Hall of Flame, a T-shirt and free soda for life, are you game for this?

A true 'Bomb' of a meal

Can you stomach this? The 'Bomb' is a massive pile of meat rolled into a big loaf of bread and if that isn't enough, wrapped up neatly in bacon! Since just eating this doesn't seem like a big deal, you'll also have to gobble up a bowl of fries to prove that you're a boss. If you finish this in 45 minutes, you get immediate access to the Hall of Fame and a free T-shirt. Best of all, the cost for your 'Bomb' meal will be completely waived!

All the ice cream you want

An ice cream challenge is no big deal, right? Doesn't it just gracefully slide down your throat and plop straight into your stomach? Eight scoops of ice cream in your choice of flavour with eight different toppings sounds like heaven. But add big dollops of whipped cream and three bananas to it and suddenly it makes your knees go weak. Eat it in under an hour, and you get free ice cream for a year.

Picture Credit : Google

Ruby Chocolate is the first new chocolate in 80 years and the fourth type of chocolate after Dark, Milk and White chocolate. Presented by Barry Callebaut, the world's largest cocoa producer, Ruby chocolate is made from the Ruby cocoa bean grown in the Ivory Coast, Ecuador and Brazil. The flavour is described as "a tension between berry-fruitiness and luscious smoothness".

No extra colour is added to create the pink hue, which comes from a compound extracted during the processing. The beans belong to the same family of cacao plant that is the origin of the chocolate we have been eating all this time.

According to Barry Callebaut, ruby chocolate is made from “ruby cacao beans,” which are found in Ecuador, Brazil and Ivory Coast. Similar to grapes that are grown for fine wine, the ruby cacao beans are influenced by their environment and thereby cultivated in specific climate conditions.

While the chocolate manufacturer has kept the details on how ruby chocolate is produced top secret, they have shared that the candy’s photo-worthy blush color and unique flavor are a result of the ruby cacao bean’s fermentation process.

Despite having no added berries, flavor or coloring, ruby chocolate still tastes pretty fruity. The chocolate boasts a sweet, berry-like flavor with a slightly tart after-note. It’s completely unlike milk or dark chocolate, seeing that it’s not overly milky or bitter.

Instead, ruby chocolate blends hints of berry (most notably raspberry and strawberry) with a smooth, decadent texture. If anything, it almost tastes like a rich, berry-flavored white chocolate.

Credit : Food Network

Picture Credit : Google

Today, we see tacos everywhere and in every form - carnitas, barbacoa, al pastor, adobada, and countless other variations of this corn-based tortilla wrap in authentic Mexican food. Though the taco came from Mexico, it seems to be one of the most universally loved foods, spreading worldwide.

The origin of the word taco comes from the Nahuatl’s “tlahco,” translating to “half, or in the middle” in English, describing the way we fold this tasty flatbread before eating it. 

The origin of tacos begins with corn. Sometime around 3,000 BC, Mexicans excavated the “Valle de Tehuac” and hybridized grasses to create the corn plant. Indigenous cultures viewed corn as the foundation of humanity or the seed of life. They even believed humans were built of corn. 

Ancient culture revered corn because it quite literally kept them alive and improved their overall quality of life drastically. 

Corn kernels are nixtamalized with an alkaline treatment to remove the husk, then ground into a fine corn flour base of our favorite tortillas. Historians date the first traces of nixtamalized corn back to the Olmec culture back in 1,500 BC, meaning they likely included a basic corn flatbread in their diets. 

The famous Moctezuma used these corn tortillas to scoop and hold his food after a hot stone preparation. Years later, after Hernan Cortez overthrew the Aztec empire, he fed his soldiers banquets of corn tortillas and pork. 

Authentic Mexican tacos in their modern form developed sometime in the 19th century in the booming Mexican silver mines. The first true type of taco was the “taco de minero,” or “miner’s taco.” 

And though we can’t say for sure, experts believe that “taco” referred initially to gunpowder wrapped in a thin piece of paper, used to blow up holes in the rock face and excavate the ore. It’s easy to see how a tasty tortilla wrap may have resembled them, earning the taco’s modern moniker. A small taco, taquito, looks exactly like a small stick of dynamite and might burn as badly as one for those not well acquainted with chile spice!

From there, tacos spread through the working-class of Mexico, with taquerias popping up to offer modestly priced meals. Migrant women brought the taco to Mexico City to sell, and the city quickly transformed into the country’s biggest taco hub. 

In 1908, the city of Cuautla, Morelos birthed tacos made with sausage, chorizo, green sauce and pork rinds, mole Verde, and many more modern favorites. Eventually, these tacos made their way to the capital, Cuernavaca. 

Credit : Uno Casa

Picture Credit : Google

Burrito is a popular Mexican dish consisting of a grilled or steamed tortilla wrapped into a cylindrical shape and filled with varied ingredients. Did you know that the word “burrito” means “little donkey” in Spanish? This could be because a burrito can carry many things just as a donkey can. Another theory is that the stuffed tortilla looks like the bundles often carried by the pack animal.

Another popular theory tells of an unnamed street vendor in Ciudad Juárez, who created the burrito in the 1940s, to sell to poor children at a nearby school. His affectionate nickname for the children was “burritos”, slang for “slow” or “dimwitted”, and that was how the food got its name.

There is one more theory, according to which the burrito was invented in Sonora (a region in northwest Mexico) as a food that was easy to carry around while traveling. Since traveling was commonly done by donkey, the burrito was named after the travel companion. Gustavo Arellano, who wrote the book “Taco: USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America” and is an expert on the topic, believes this theory is the most plausible, since Sonora is the region of Mexico known for growing wheat, which is the main ingredient in flour tortillas.

The original Mexican burritos (which are still consumed in Mexico today) are small and thin. They are filled with basic ingredients like meat, fish, cheese, beans, rice and hot peppers – but never all together, just one or two of these ingredients in a single burrito. Migrant workers from Mexico had possibly brought burritos with them to the United States between the 1940s and the 1960s. Americans quickly fell in love with the flavourful dish, and taquerias serving burritos started springing up in Southern California in the following decades.

The arrival of the burrito the States helped catalyze its transformation into the big, juicy super-burrito we know today. The Mission-style burrito, also known as the San Francisco burrito, was invented by El Faro, a grocery store in San Francisco’s Mission District, in 1961. El Faro’s owner, Febronio Ontiveros, claims to have come up with the extra-large burrito that contained rice, guacamole and sour cream alongside the standard fillings of meat, beans and cheese.

Of course, that’s not how the burrito story ends. Sixty years later, burritos in dizzying varieties are available in restaurants and grocery stores across the globe. Pretty incredible for a dish that started as a functional meal for travelers!

Credit : Quesada 

Picture Credit : Google

Tracing its roots

The birth of Indian-Chinese cuisine can be attributed to Chinese migrants who moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Bombay (now Mumbai) in the late 1700s. One of the first recorded migrants who travelled to India for material prospects was Yang Tai Chow, a Chinese businessman, in 1778. With more number of Chinese migrants arriving, Chinatown was established in Calcutta,

Like most immigrant communities, the Chinese acquired and incorporated Indian sensibilities into their food and this eventually led to the birth of the famous Indian-Chinese cuisine. According to reports, the first Indian Chinese restaurant called Eau Chew, opened in Calcutta. The dishes on their menu were a blend of Chinese ingredients such as soy sauce and noodles, and Indian spices. The dishes impressed the locals, and eventually, a number of such food joints sprung in Calcutta

An iconic dish

Mumbai, which too had a substantial number of Chinese immigrants, also witnessed a similar trend. One of the most iconic moments was the invention of chicken manchurian, which today is synonymous with Chinese food in India. Invented by Nelson Wang, the then caterer of Chinese food at the Cricket Club of India, chicken manchurian was first prepared in Mumbai in 1975. Wang, who was born in Calcutta moved to Bombay for work.

According to popular legend, he created the dish by tossing soy sauce, cornstarch and chicken together in a pan, when a customer demanded a new dish. Now, there are a few varieties of manchurian available in our restaurants.

Fan-favourites

Though the Chinese community in India has dwindled significantly, the dishes are a fan-favourite According to reports, there is a significant rise in the consumption of restaurant food among the millennials, and many choose Indian-Chinese food, as it is easily available across the country. The predominance of gravy and rice makes Indian-Chinese a comfort cuisine.

Indian-Chinese dishes have become a quintessential part of Indian cuisine, that most of these items can hardly be found anywhere outside the country, even in China. Several Indian-Chinese dishes bear very little resemblance to the food actually eaten in China. These dishes include chilli chicken or paneer, spring rolls, chowmein and fried rice, and date pancakes.

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Charles Cretors invented the first commercial popcorn machine in 1885. Charles Cretors redesigned a peanut roaster machine after he purchased it for his confectionery shop in Decatur, Illinois but was deeply unsatisfied with how it functioned. After redesigning the peanut roaster machine for better function, he realized he was able to use it to pop popcorn. His invention marks the very first popcorn machine could pop popcorn uniformly in seasoning. Cretors moved to Chicago to sell popcorn and show off his new popcorn machine invention. When he purchased his first vendors' license to legally sell the popcorn outside of his shop on December 2nd, 1885, his company, C. Cretors & Company was born and the world of popcorn was forever changed.

His popcorn machine was run by a little steam engine, which promoted the popcorn popping process, and by 1893, he had created a popcorn machine could pop popcorn in oil. His invention was patented same year. Cretors took his popcorn machine to Chicago’s Columbian Exposition, which is now known as the World’s Fair: Columbian Exposition and introduced it to the public. He offered free samples of his hot buttered popcorn and by the time he left, people were lining up to purchase his popcorn. A traveling salesman named J. M. Savage tried Cretors product and offered to sell the steam-powered popcorn machine in his territory. Thrilled by this deal, Cretors agreed and Cretors hired his first salesman.

By 1900, Cretors invented the Special, a popcorn machine wagon drawn by horses and it became a huge success. From the success of the Special, several different versions of it were created, including one wrapped in walnut wood. As electricity was becoming more available, Cretors was the creator of the very first popcorn machine with an electrical motor. Electrical popcorn machines became more popular than their steam-powered parent and as movie attendance in the 1920s grew, so did the demand for Cretors popcorn machine. In 1988, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp featuring a picture of Cretors’ 1902 version of the first popcorn machine wagon as a tribute to America's first snack.

Credit : America’s Favourite Popcorn

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Popcorn is one of the healthiest and most popular snacks. Plain, unbuttered, air-popped popcorn is low in calories and rich in fibre, vitamins, minerals and polyphenol antioxidants. Consuming it improves digestion.

Many people will be more used to eating popcorn at the cinema with toppings or flavorings. These added extras tend to have little nutritional value. Microwave popcorn may also contain additives, and the bags can have contaminants.

Premade popcorn often contains a high level of salt, or sodium. Eating too much sodium can cause high blood pressure and lead to other health complications. Some brands also include a lot of sugar.

Added butter, sugar, and salt can make popcorn an unhealthful snack. The health benefits discussed in this article refer to air-popped, oil-free popcorn specifically.

Popcorn is a whole grain, which refers to a group of seeds that come from crops that include barley, millet, oats, rice, and wheat.

Unlike refined grains that manufacturers have processed to remove the bran and germ, whole grains include the entire grain seed, also called the kernel. This means that whole grains contain dietary fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, and beneficial fats.

Other examples of food made of whole grains include brown rice, wholemeal bread, and oatmeal.

Credit : Medical New Today 

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Both ice cream and kulfi are frozen dairy desserts, but if you've tasted both, you'll know that ice cream is creamy and soft, while kulfi is always hard.

To make kulfi, milk is first sweetened, then thickened and reduced by boiling and poured into small clay pots or kulfi moulds. It is then frozen by burying the pots underground with ice or by putting them in the refrigerator. Kulfis have a distinctive taste because of the caramelisation of milk and sugar that happens during the lengthy cooking process. Traditional ice cream recipes involve the use of eggs, which kulfis don't have. Ice cream is made by preparing a custard from milk, eggs and sugar. This custard is then frozen. But unlike the kulfi, ice cream is made by continuously churning the custard during the freezing process. How good an ice cream is, depends not only on the taste but also the texture. The churning process adds air to the ice cream mixture, making its texture smooth. The origins of the two desserts also differ.

While kulfi was invented by Arabs, ice cream originated in Europe.

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Many people around the world believe in the five-second rule for dropped food. What does that mean? It is believed that if you pick up the food within five seconds of dropping, it may not be contaminated by germs.

Some of us would eat food off the floor, if we think the floor is clean or if the food is not moist.

Sometimes, we also don't mind food that's been dropped on the table compared to food that's been dropped on the carpet. Some of us would eat it, if no one is watching. This has happened to all of us and that may be the reason why the five-second rule has garnered scholarly attention.

Jillian Clarke of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, received the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize in public health, for her study on this. She found that even a brief exposure, less than 5 seconds, of food to a tile treated with E.coli bacteria, can contaminate it. Donald Schaffner, a Rutgers University biologist, and his team, experimented with various surfaces like carpet, stainless steel, ceramic tile and wood. They dropped food items such as watermelon cubes, buttered bread and plain bread onto surfaces smeared with the bacteria Enterobacter aerogenes. They found that moist food attracted more bacteria than dry ones. Stainless steel passed on the germs more quickly than carpet. The study concluded that bacteria would transfer from a surface to the food, rather instantaneously.

If you ask us, we would suggest, why take a risk? Moist or dry, stainless steel or carpet, it is best to avoid dropped food.

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Did you know that a balanced diet includes fat? Why should it be included?

Not all fats are unhealthy. A balanced diet must include fat as it is a source of energy and helps our body to absorb other nutrients.

Healthy fats such as monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids help to lower cholesterol. The richest sources of unsaturated fats are cooking oils such as olive, soybean and peanut oils, nuts and tofu.

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in oily fish, nuts, seeds and leafy green vegetables. They are essential nutrients not produced by our body, but vital for normal growth in young children.

Limit intake

Bad fats like saturated fats raise our cholesterol levels, clog our arteries and increase our risk of heart disease in addition to making us obese. We get saturated fats from animal products: red meat and whole milk dairy products such as cheese, ice cream and butter. However, they are also an important source of vitamins and minerals. Hence, we should limit, not eliminate, our consumption of saturated fats.

Avoid processed foods

Trans fats, also known as hydrogenated fats, are found in processed foods such as French fries and cookies. They raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol. Next time you buy snacks, check for the term "partially hydrogenated oil" in the list of ingredients - those are the

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