Welcome to Delicious or Distressing, where we rate recent food memes, videos, and other decidedly unserious news. See last week's about a woman who steals an astonishing amount of restaurant plateware here.
This week, the Don't Worry Darling cast graced our feeds with delicious drama. As speculations of spitting were tossed about and Chris Pine made a quiet but forceful reentry into the public imagination, an unbothered, purple-clad Florence Pugh sauntered down the streets of Venice, Aperol spritz in hand.
Alas, the very internet that served us textbook Hollywood spectacle and, in turn, Pugh's delicious Aperol jaunt, also served us a raw chicken breast animated with stop motion technology. Food internet overall leaned delicious this week though: We also saw ice cream shaped in the likeness of a baked potato and a child trying peanut sauce on a spring roll for the first time.
Alert: Aperol spritz is in again because of this video and this video alone. All other drinks of the summer are on notice. Just kidding, you can drink whatever you want, but I now want to drink an Aperol spritz because I'm easily influenced by anything Florence Pugh does. Also, I am looking for excuses to explain all the Don't Worry Darling drama to my friends who aren't chronically online. If you're not caught up, you're welcome. Hollywood gossip is BACK baby. 5/5 delicious. - Serena Dai, editorial director
https://twitter.com/timeslowin/status/1566820832202018817
In the vein of young children indulging in the simple pleasures of food (see: corn kid), this young child trying peanut sauce on a spring roll for the first time brings me a lot of joy. Watch as he gingerly drizzles just enough sauce to fill one perfect bite of a spring roll, with expert precision and laser focus-and not one ounce of drippage. He breaks into an adorable, tear-inducing smile upon accomplishing his sauce-pouring feat, and it's an instant serotonin boost of a finale to this short film. 4.8/5 delicious. - Li Goldstein, digital production assistant
It's hard to describe just how upsetting it is to watch a raw chicken breast cook itself in a jarring, 40 second stop-motion animation. It's like Wallace and Gromit, but run through an AI generator made by the devil. The raw chicken breast first uses what I can only describe as its beak to sensually peel a tomato, before popping the heads off some raw prawns and-get ready for this-blending itself and the prawns into a fine paste. It's impossible to look away as the ground mixture of chicken, prawn, chopped vegetables, and raw egg convulses into a fine paste. That paste turns into delicate little meatballs, and by the time those balls are steaming in a rich tomato sauce, one has no choice but to admit that the chicken breast (RIP) was actually a pretty impressive cook. It's a rollercoaster of emotions, and if I had to experience it, so do you. 5/5 distressing-but would definitely eat. - Elazar Sontag, restaurant editor
https://twitter.com/ambercrollo/status/1566287761312649216
Is it cake? No, it's something better: a hefty scoop of vanilla ice cream disguised as a baked potato. A generous coating of cocoa powder and a swirl of whipped cream creates the illusion of a wrinkly, dimpled spud topped with sour cream. I gasped and did a double-take,
before I realized it was, in fact, not a potato meant to be eaten as dessert, but an actual sundae-like concoction with chocolate sauce and cookie crumbs. It's an iconic dessert in Idaho-the chef spent 40 years perfecting it-and I would 100% eat it. 5/5 delicious. - Genevieve Yam, Epicurious assistant editor
https://twitter.com/RegionalUSFood/status/1566744723716354048
In a chaotically filmed video that's riled up some angry Twitter-goers, the Tipsy Bartender evolves the Jager Bomb into a form that, frankly, nobody asked for: the hot dog. In a fervent, cinema verité style short, we watch this bartender boil a slate of wieners, fill a condiment squeeze bottle with Red Bull and ketchup (??), soak said hot dogs in a jar of Jägermeister a la cucumbers dunked in pickle brine. Then, he pan fries them in the Jager-dog juice, and, lastly, stuffs a dog in a bun and drizzles it with mayo, mustard, and Red Bull-infused ketchup. If that run-on of a play-by-play gave you a headache, it's a pretty apt verbal translation of the experience of watching this video, IMO. As much as I would certainly not partake in the consumption of this Frankenstinian creature, I respect the bartender's enthusiasm and the dedication of whoever is behind the camera. Some on Twitter are calling for this man's immediate imprisonment, but I say let him enjoy his Jager-dog in peace. 2.6/5 distressing. - Li Goldstein, digital production assistant
https://twitter.com/TipsyBartender/status/1566818442631471106