Oddity Central

Pepsi-Chicken Flavor Potato Chips Hit China
English Artist Creates Masterpieces by Painting with Tea
Man Answers Iron instead of Phone, Burns Half His Face

Pepsi-Chicken Flavor Potato Chips Hit China

Posted: 13 Dec 2012 03:37 AM PST

Every year, potato chip maker Lay’s launches a new flavor in China, and this time it seems like they have a real winner on their hands – pepsi-chicken, a very popular dish in the world’s most populated country.

Who new Pepsi and chicken go so well, together, right? Well, the Chinese, apparently. Chicken wings tossed into a wok and caramelized in soy sauce, spices and cola is a simple and common recipe in China, and PepsiCo. wants to capitalize on its popularity by using it as the newest flavor for Lay’s chips. It might sound more like a recipe for disaster to us westerners, but bizarre flavors aren’t exactly new to China. In years past, lays has released a range of unusual flavors, including lemon tea (subtle), cucumber (cloying) and hot-and-sour fish soup (fishy). Knowing that, I think I might find pepsi-chicken potato chips almost edible. According to AdAge, “in potato-chip form, the [pepsi-chicken] flavor is vaguely similar to barbecue with a sugary aftertaste. If there’s any hint of Pepsi, it’s fleeting and lacks fizz.”

“We thought it would be really cool to have a cola combined with chicken. … It’s a very popular dish in China,” Richard Lee, PepsiCo’s chief marketing officer in China, said. ”Also it would be very cool to involve one of our most-iconic soft drinks,” he added. Yup, it must be nice promoting two brands with the same product, but I still wouldn’t put one of these Pepsi-flavored chips anywhere near my mouth.

via Gizmodo

Pepsi-Chicken Flavor Potato Chips Hit China was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

English Artist Creates Masterpieces by Painting with Tea

Posted: 13 Dec 2012 02:44 AM PST

Liverpool-based artist Carne Griffiths creates magical artworks by combining traditional mediums like ink with drinks like tea, vodka, brandy, whiskey and other alcohols.

39-year-old Carne Griffiths relies on drinks to make his art stand out. He isn’t the only artist to find his inspiration in drink, famous masters like Vincent Van Gogh and Salvador Dali enjoyed a glass of alcohol to release their creative talents, but Mr. Griffiths has a very different approach – he uses them as paint. "I have drawn with fountain pen for many years, often with plain water washes. When I decided to leave my post of creative director at an embroidery firm to pursue a love of drawing I experimented with liquids such as brandy,” Carne said in an interview about his medium choices. "I liked the effect this had on the inks I was using but decided that an alternative that wasn't such a wasteful crime would be a better option so I started experimenting with different types of tea." Using a combination of ink and tea allows the English artist to create repeating layers which he then partly washes out with various types of tea, and making new drawings out of what appears beneath.

Although it’s clears drawing is the foundation of Carne Griffiths’ art, the use of tea as paint has helped him develop a very unique palette of colors. "I can introduce vibrant colours but the tea does the job of mixing with these to create a balance in the work. I know this could have been achieved with a reduced palette of colours but there is something about the whole process of brewing the tea and working with a color that becomes more intense or darker in tone as the work progresses," the artist says.

via Hella-Heaven

English Artist Creates Masterpieces by Painting with Tea was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Man Answers Iron instead of Phone, Burns Half His Face

Posted: 13 Dec 2012 01:49 AM PST

Yes, apparently this kind of thing can happen. At least according to Tomasz Paczkowski, from Elbag, Poland, who while trying to help his wife with house chores, accidentally picked up the hot iron instead of the phone and ended up burning half his face.

32-year-old Tomasz Paczkowski had taken a week off from his job, and one morning he decided to prove to his wife that he could be a real asset around the house. Before going off to work, she asked him to iron some clothes, and Tomasz was more than happy to oblige. But, as we men know, ironing can get pretty boring after a while, so the young Pole got the “brilliant” idea to multitask. 'Women are always going on about multi-tasking, so I set up the iron, opened a beer and turned on the TV to watch boxing' Mr. Paczkowski said. Everything was going great, and he was actually starting to enjoy doing housework, only at one point he got so involved with the boxing that he wasn’t really thinking about what he was doing. That’s when the phone started ringing…

Photo: CEN

He picked up the receiver, put it to his ear, but all he could hear was the sizzling sound of his face burning. The excruciating pain woke him up, and he realized he had picked up the hot iron instead of the phone. And if that wasn’t bad enough, as he ran to the bathroom to put some cold water on his face, he bashed his left eye against the door, and added even more pain as well as a black eye to the mix. Tomazs told Polish reporters he looked as if he had come out of a boxing game himself. Luckily, doctors say the burns are not that serious, and he’ll make a full recovery. As for Mr. Paczkowski, he swears he will never watch boxing on TV again. There’s your mistake right there, friend, it’s housework you should have stayed away from in the first place, we’re just not cut out for it.