Discovered a great new blog called Pei Wei this morning about Asian food in China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. Here’s a description from the site and a some sample videos featuring the host Alice Shin.

“After hosting a two month national search for the Pei Wei blogger, we selected Alice Shin to accompany our chefs on an 18-day trip throughout the five Asian cultures (China, Japan, Korea, Thailand & Vietnam) that make up our menu. Our chefs will be searching for culinary inspiration for new dishes at Pei Wei as well as looking to re-visit some of the classic traditional flavors from each country. Alice will be tagging along to share all the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the trip with you.”

Alice Shin Explores Ho Chi Minh City

Chef Eric & Alice Shin Explore Shanghai – Try Dumplings, Bao & Small Plates

What do you do if you’re a chef and you’re tired of having to cut and shave noodles everyday? Well if you’re Chinese chef Cui Runquan of Hebei Province in China, you build a robot to do the job for you.

“All day long, I used to work beside a pot of boiling water, shaving noodles by hand and pouring them in,” he explained. “It’s hot and steamy work and I thought how wonderful it would be if I could build a robot to do it for me.”

“The design of the blades integrates the best angle and positions of a real human chef. This way the robot can perform good and efficient work,” added Cui who is now working with a factory in Beijing to hopefully bring this noodle cutting robot to the masses.

(via Orange)

The battle to win a greater share of the “obesity” demographic is heating up. After KFC scored big with the Double Down, a sandwich that uses two chicken breasts rather than a bun, Friendly’s is now entering the fray.

The chain has debuted its Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt, which it describes this way: “This is the BurgerMelt to end all BurgerMelts. We place a thick and juicy 100% Black Angus Big Beef Burger between two whole grilled cheese sandwiches, complete with lettuce, tomato and mayo. You’ll have to taste it to believe it.”

Those who choose to eat one should believe this. It has 1500 calories, 870 calories from fat, 97 grams total of fat, 38 grams of saturated fat, 180 mg of cholesterol, 2090 mg of sodium, 101 grams total of carbohydrate, 9 grams of dietary fiber, 4 grams of sugar and 54 grams of protein. In short, this sandwich is a nutritional disaster.

(via PerishableNews)

McDonald’s is releasing four new burgers that will only be available in Japan:

• The Texas Burger topped with old-fashioned grainy mustard-relish, barbecue sauce, bacon, cheese, and crispy fried onions with a middle bun that separates the barbecue sauce, onions, and bacon from the rest of the burger.
• The Burger New York topped with Monterey Jack cheese, bacon, tomato, lettuce, and grainy mustard.
• The California Burger topped with spicy cheese, bacon, tomato, lettuce, and a special sauce made with red wine produced in California.
• The Hawaii Burger topped with special gravy, an Egg McMuffin-style fried egg, bacon, chopped lettuce, and American cheese.

Can’t wait to try the Hawaii burger when I head there in a couple months. Sounds a lot like a loco moco. Yum!

Our friends have been telling us about a new ramen joint called Santouka Ramen that opened up at Mitsuwa Marketplace in San Jose, CA. We’re always on the hunt for good ramen places as you guys know, so we decided to give this place a try today. Since Santouka Ramen in located inside of Mitsuwa’s “food court,” the hours are a bit weird. I asked the cashier, and she said there’s no official hours but only that they usually open around 11am and close around 7:30pm. This definitely isn’t a late night ramen run kind of place.

Since the place is still rather new, there’s of course a line waiting to get in. We stood in it for roughly 20 minutes and then waited another 30 minutes for our food.

So how do we rate it? It’s a bit of a mixed liking. The Toroniku (special pork) was quite yummy, but the noodles and Salt Flavor broth were only alright. Tami’s Miso Flavor ramen was much tastier than mine, but the regular pork that came with it was only alright as well.

I’d say give it a try if you happen to be in the area, but I definitely wouldn’t make a special trip out for it. Ippudo in NY and Suzu in SF are still my favs!

These D-Sized Salt and Pepper Battery Shakers were definitely made with gear heads in mind. Designed by Antrepo Design Industry in Turkey, they are available in red and turquoise, or black and white.

Shake Shack is a modern day burger stand located in the middle of Madison Square Park in New York. Not the usual place you’d find a burger stand, but it’s a huge hit with the locals and tourists. Tami and I wanted to try this place out after watching Samantha Brown cover it on her Travel channel show.

The burgers are delicious and the fries are nice and crisp. People say it’s the best damn burger in New York. It was good, but I’ve definitely had better. I prefer my burger’s charbroiled like they do at Kirk’s Steakburgers in Palo Alto, CA.

It was still a great experience and worth a try if you’re in the NYC area. Where else can you buy a burger in the middle of a park and enjoy a bit of nature?

To avoid the long lines, you can check the webcam on their website before you arrive. Luckily we did, because the line started to wrap around the block soon after we got there!