Laziness is the mother of invention

[relaxin]

A lot of things were invented to save labor of the users, but sometimes it is just due to the laziness of the inventor. Here is a good example on the invention of sushi.

One day, a Japanese fisherman came home with his catch of the day, and gave it to his wife. "Make me a nice dinner", he demanded. His wife was a lazy woman and did not like to cook. (Well, it was difficult to cook with firewood in a warm summer evening back in the good old days.) So she just sliced the fish and put it on a slab of cold rice and handed to her husband, and said, "take it or leave it." Being hungry and tired, the poor fisherman reluctantly ate it. Being hungry, anything will taste delicious. He exclaimed, "Oishii" (Japanese word for delicious). Soon, he developed a taste for sushi, and the tradition since spread throughout Japan.

If you have another example of a lazy inventor, please post.

[wind77]

hmm..
i wonder has anyone heard of "beggar's chicken"? A famous chinese dish:

It happened long long ago. The federal dynasty imposed heavy tax on civilians, and people were deprived of everything. Family broken up, they strayed everywhere as beggars. One day, a beggar was floating in Changsu of Jiangsu Province, cold and hungry. Little by little, he couldn't stand up and fainted. His fellow sufferers were trying to save him. They collected wood and burned it to warm him up. One fellow sufferer took out the only remained chicken and prepared to cook for him. But without any tools to cooking, they were very worried. Suddenly, one of them got an idea. He suggested wrapping up the chicken with slush, and putting the mud pie into fire to bake. They continuously collected wood and baked mud pie. Finally, when the chicken was fully cooked, they began to knock open mud. To everyone's surprise, the feather was also falling off with mud, and the chicken smelled very nice. The aroma attracted all neighbors around. They came and couldn't stop praising the unique cooking style and the unique taste.

quoted from http://www.louwailou.com.cn/english/chick.asp

[leekaming]

i have heard about this kind of chicken. But i have not tried it yet.
This method save a time-consuming step, removing feather from its skin.

[relaxin]

Well, a modern version of the "beggar's chicken" is served in some Chinese restaurants. Of course, they clean the chicken (i.e. removing the feathers and guts etc), wrap the chicken with aluminum foil, and cook it in oven.

[wind77]

Well, a modern version of the "beggar's chicken" is served in some Chinese restaurants. Of course, they clean the chicken (i.e. removing the feathers and guts etc), wrap the chicken with aluminum foil, and cook it in oven.

well, food tastes better when cook in its original way.

[creepster]

Well, a modern version of the "beggar's chicken" is served in some Chinese restaurants. Of course, they clean the chicken (i.e. removing the feathers and guts etc), wrap the chicken with aluminum foil, and cook it in oven.

well, food tastes better when cook in its original way.

unfortunately i cannot afford a flight ticket to neither china nor anywhere else around that corner

)=

[wind77]

another dish:
salted chicken.

once, a trader bought a chicken, returning home for spring festival. but the journey is long, and live chicken is not easy to carry. So he slaughtered the chicken and use salt to wrap it in his luggage.
On it way back, he wasn't able to find a place to rest, and no food available. So he used the beggar's method: wrapped chicken with leaf, covered with mud, and threw into fire and burnt.
Surprisingly, the chicken taste good this way. And it became salted chicken.

[wind77]

unfortunately i cannot afford a flight ticket to neither china nor anywhere else around that corner

hmm.. u have chicken in canada?
and i suppose u can find charcoal and mud?
so what is holding u back?

maybe i can propose an alt lab version:
get a lab mouse. clean its internal organs. put some sodium chloride in its place.
put its tail in its mouth and hold it there.
wrap with aluminium foil.
put into autoclave.

theoretically, should taste the same..

[creepster]

unfortunately i cannot afford a flight ticket to neither china nor anywhere else around that corner

hmm.. u have chicken in canada?
and i suppose u can find charcoal and mud?
so what is holding u back?

maybe i can propose an alt lab version:
get a lab mouse. clean its internal organs. put some sodium chloride in its place.
put its tail in its mouth and hold it there.
wrap with aluminium foil.
put into autoclave.

theoretically, should taste the same..

yeah, lemme raid animal care in the basement and i'll get back to you

[relaxin]

If you are too lazy to go to cafeteria to get a bite, here is a short protocol for a quick lunch.

1. Put 500 ml of water in a 1 liter beaker.

2. Put the beaker on a hotplate, and set it to "High"

3. When the water is boiling, open a package of instant noodle and put the noodle in the boiling water. Turn of the hotplate and allow to incubate for 3 min.

4. Add the seasoning, stir to dissolve with a glass rod. Enjoy.

Oh, you need to lock the lab door, or the aroma of the noodle will attract the attention of person like creepster, who would give you a lecture on lab safety.

[creepster]

... something yummy ...
Oh, you need to lock the lab door, or the aroma of the noodle will attract the attention of person like creepster, who would give you a lecture on lab safety.

hey, it isnt my call
personaly i could care less if people want to poison themselves with acrylamide dust on their sandwiches and ethidiumbromide solution in soda (might give even a nicer colour), and i would eat in the lab as well
it's just that the safety rules are more strickt

hell, in my first job i had paraffin embedded tissue slides swimming on my coffee ...

[leekaming]

maybe i can propose an alt lab version:
get a lab mouse. clean its internal organs. put some sodium chloride in its place.
put its tail in its mouth and hold it there.
wrap with aluminium foil.
put into autoclave.

awful

[relaxin]

In fact, one student told me that he cooked fish wraped with aluminum folil in autoclave. He said the autocalve sterilzed anything that was inside previously. But just thinking about the toxic chemicals from the plastic dishes will make me sick!

I agree with leekaming, awful

[wind77]

In fact, one student told me that he cooked fish wraped with aluminum folil in autoclave. He said the autocalve sterilzed anything that was inside previously. But just thinking about the toxic chemicals from the plastic dishes will make me sick!

well, he wrapped it with aluminium foil, so where the plastic come from?
if the plastic is autoclavable, and it ain't poison ur bacteria culture, it wun poison u as well.
i used to bring my sandwich for lunch to lab, and keep in 4C.
then, half hour before meal, bring out and keep in 35C.
lunch time, it's ready to serve.

[swannnyy]

Travelling through England, we decided to have chicken a la Fiesta. We bought some chicken pieces, added some spices and salt, wrapped in several layers of foil and wedged the parcels around the engine of our 1986 Ford Fiesta (1.1 throbbing litres of thumping Ford power...). We then went off on our drive for the day (about 1.5 hr).
When we arrived at our destination (an historic house called Longleat, complete with private drive-through zoo), we removed our parcels from the engine, and opened them up for a few miinutes, just to be sure any fumes dissipated. It tasted fantastic.
Looking back, I think it might have been wiser to try this on a day when we weren't going to be driving through an enclosure of 15 or so lions... We got a lot of attention from them!!!