Friday Fourplay: A $66 Kobe Steak Pizza, In the Future: A PC That’s Also a PC, A Smartfork, and When Tyson Met Bourdain

Flavorful World’s Friday Fourplay offers up a bite-sized tidbit of info on each of the four food- and drink-related things we found most interesting each week.

Photo credit: Slice

Domino’s Pizza Japan’s $66 Kobe Steak Pie

Not to be outdone by competitors on the specialty pizza scene, Domino’s Japan recently unveiled this pie piled with Kobe beef steak. For a paltry 5800 yen (roughly $66 USD) it can be yours, mine, and ours, and if there be truth in advertising, it cuts an impressive figure.  Laden with onions, potato, and whatever “deluxe steak sauce” may be, this sounds more than a little tasty, and renews my lamentation that so many miles lie between it and my stomach. One can only hope that it is as much a helping of meat and potatoes to which the pizza is but an addendum as I hope it is.  Because I like pizza just fine, but I do love kobe beef.

Via Slice

In the Future: A “PC” that’s also a “PC”

Included in the December 2012 iteration of IBM’s Annual 5 in 5 list is a computer that could someday design recipes customized to a person’s individual taste and flavor preferences. The determination process would involve analysis of a food’s chemical compound interaction, and from which ones our brains, noses, and taste buds derive the greatest pleasurable experience. Five years is a long time, but the wait could be worth it for the chance to one day have a computer put together a meal that tastes as though it’s full of stars.

Via Eatocracy

Photo credit: Devour

The Smartfork

The tech wizards at HAPILABS want to help you control your meal portions, and their HAPIfork is the tool they’ve chosen for the task. Due to debut in 2014, it’s designed to monitor both how much food one is putting away and how quickly one does so. Anyone exceeding the limits of what the HAPIfork deems reasonable will receive a vibrating jolt of admonishment.  While I can conceive no scenario in which being berated by a dining utensil doesn’t sound humiliating, HAPIfork might yet serve a valuable purpose.  We’ll see.

Via Devour

When Tyson Met Bourdain

Before watching this interview, I wouldn’t have imagined you could pack this much pure awesomeness onto one screen.  As usual, I find myself continuing to learn from two of the most compelling minds of our time. Watching astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain talk on cooking and global food culture is Star Time indeed, and it always will be.

Via Serious Eats

*Mention of a product, good, or service in a Friday Fourplay posting should not be interpreted as an endorsement either from Anthony Beal or Flavorful World food and drink blog. Vendors are not notified ahead of time that their products/services will be featured, thus Flavorful World will at the time of posting have had no related interactions with said vendors or any sample of their products/services by which to judge them. As such, we have no idea what these vendors are like to work with, or about the quality of their merchandise and are unqualified to vouch for them as reputable. Our Friday Fourplay lists are posted in the simple spirit of our having come across something that looks and sounds engaging, and thinking that perhaps our readers will think so too; no more, no less. With that in mind, patronize these establishments and vendors at your own risk.