Isn't cooking exhausting sometimes?

I saw this and got really excited given my new found interest in cooking using a car! This design for an exhaust pipe modification that cooks things won an award for the best idea that we could all be using come 2015! This extract is from Inventor Spot.

"Designed by an Iranian team, the "Exhaust Burger" transforms the tailpipe of your car into a mobile grill of sorts. Wow. Now that's creative, and also a little disturbing. The idea is that you stop the car when you are hungry, install the device (and pack some ground round into it - so hygenic) and you're on your way to a delicious hamburger, ready for you at your next destination."

The site also features some other brilliant ideas such as...

Wallet Cutlery





"Italian designer Alberto Ghiradello has come up with a creative solution to carting around cutlery. I don't know about you, but somehow I tend to find spoons hanging out in my bag all the time, and it can get quite annoying, especially when there's none in the kitchen drawer. This "Cutlery in a Wallet" set can be assembled whenever you need them, and then can be reinserted into the flat mold and housed in your wallet again, hopefully after a cleaning."

Bubble Wrap Tableware

"I always like when everyday objects take on new life with a different function, such as this unique crystal "china" modelled after bubble wrap. "Bubble" is made of cast polyester resin and looks like it would be a real pain in the butt to clean. This was a collaborative effort by U.S. artists."



And Musical Dining

"This piece, entitled "Musical Dining" was envisioned by Fumiaki Goto from the Netherlands and promises to bring some musical entertainment to your dining experience. It's made like a marimba, so when you place plates, glasses or different items on it at various points, different tones will emerge, transforming dinnertime into a jam session."



If you want to see even more weird and wonderful culinary inventions have a look here.

Cooking on a Car Engine

One of my big aims for 2008 is to master the essential masculine art of cooking on a car engine. I first encountered car engine cooking about 10 years ago when the coolest delivery man ever arrived with a delivery of books for Mum.

It was 10 in the evening so we offered him a drink and some food. He said yes to the drink and popped his bonnet open revealing a carefully wrapped tin foil package containing a lovingly made fish stew. It was his way of getting through the monotomy of driving for 11 hours a day. We were gobsmacked. And even more so when he then pulled a petrol powered skate board out of the back of his truck and went for a ride around our driveway. Surreal.

I recently rediscovered the art of car engeine cooking through Bob Bulmer's book the Surreal Gourmet.



He suggested the best thing to do was to get hold of a copy of Manifold Destiny; the bible of car engine cooking. I got it for a dolar on Amaazon although the shipping cost me a fair bit more!



It's a vintage book. Full of endless detail about which 1970's Mustang will cook baked potatoes quicker. The warnings are probably the most important bit. Don't block any air intakes. Don't imterfere with any of the car's mechanics. And don't cook anything too liquid. All pretty straightforward. It harked from a time when you opened up the bonnet and saw metal rather than plastic. I opened up the bonnet to my Polo and was confronted with a hermetically sealed engine tucked up inside a plastic straight jacket. Upon further inspection it emerged that there are several hot crannies where tasty food parcels can be nestled.

My curiosity earlier led me to a fantastic little website on the Instuctables portal . It seems everything I need to know is on here. So I'll take it all in and and get ready to cook on Cowie's Peugeot 206 engine. I'll try to theme the meal around our destination.