When you think about hot girls, chances are good that you’re thinking that they’re going to be in something like Playboy, Maxim, or FHM. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that. You might even think about them connected with something awesome, like poker.

Who ever thought that there would be women that really like cooking, and are actually hot? There are quite a few cooking cuties out there, and television has never been the same since.

Don’t believe us? Check out this crazy list of 5 “cooking cuties” that we’re loving right now.

1. Rachael Ray

A lot of people don’t like Rachael Ray, and we know that the anti-Rays might be in full force after this one. However, we think that she’s radiant. A lot of the criticism stems from the fact that Rachael Ray is rarely grouchy on air and she has a bit of a rough, husky voice. However, those are qualities that we find appealing. Food is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, so why not make it so that the star of the show is a happy person by default. Rachael Ray strikes us as a woman that really is that happy all the time, and she lights up the room with her presence. Definitely someone that we would love to have dinner with and even go out for a few drinks.

She’s an author, a TV show host, an incredible spokeswoman, and has even posed for FHM. Yummy.

2. Giada de Laurentiis

When it comes to Giada de Laurentiis, there’s one thing that you need to know — she’s hot. And she can actually cook her cute oversized head off! She’s worked at Spago, a Wolfgang Puck-run restaurant creation. Anyone tapped by Wolfgang himself to run things in his restaurant is definitely a cook that shouldn’t be taken lightly. The good looks run in the family — her mother was an actress, and she really is Italian, like from Italy — even though a lot of people say her voice is grating, we think Giada’s soft Italian accent on things is rather nice.

Giada currently runs five shows for Food Network and is supposed to be working on some cookbooks right now.

3. Nigella Lawson

Now, some would say that Nigella Lawson really isn’t that hot, but the truth is that it’s nice to see a more full figured woman taking the spotlight. It looks good to see a woman with some meat on her bones, and it helps that she’s got such a sexy British accent. Read more »

Food is more than just fuel. It’s something that connects people together. No matter where you come from, chances are good that you eat at least one thing that you can discuss with someone — even if they live on the other side of the world! Food is just that powerful. We not only like to eat food, but we tend to look at people that have a certain type of food as being more powerful than us — the rich and famous eat in restaurants that we could never think to eat in.

Speaking of rich and famous, let’s strip away the celebrities for a minute and just focus on food, okay? If you’re thinking about sinking your teeth into some fine foods, these five should definitely get you excited.

1. White Truffles

OK, we know that it’s not going to be the sexiest food that you’ve ever seen in your life. However, this is one of the world’s most admired and treasured foods. In fact, people pay good money to get a pound of truffles. They go on everything from pasta to being tucked into casseroles and even in whole meats like duck and chicken.

It’s expensive though. Truffles are actually very rare now in nature, which means that the prices can get pretty high. How high? Well, the owner of a casino in Macau paid almost half a million dollars for just 1.5kg of truffles. That’s not that much at all! Generally speaking, truffles run at about $1500 – $3,000 per pound, especially if we’re talking white truffles. A truffle is a special type of mushroom, but it has a completely different taste. Some say that taste is out of this world.

Now, chefs get by with using what’s known as truffle oil to simulate the taste. Not all truffle oils actually have any real truffle — it’s a synthetic flavor. However, if you have truffle oil over your French fries, you’ll definitely be able to taste the truffle scent and aroma in your mouth. This can actually be a good thing for people that don’t normally like mushrooms — they get the flavor without really having to eat real truffles. Still, it’s a delicacy that many people want to try.

2. Saffron

Saffron is beautiful as a flower — it’s actually part of the saffron crocus flower. What makes this spice so expensive is that it takes almost a hundred thousand flowers to make one pound. As you might imagine, that means a lot of hours of manpower to harvest and prepare the spice, which drives up the cost. The spice can usually be obtained for $500/pound.

3. Wagyu Beef

Check out that marbling! If you don’t know what you’re looking at, you’re actually looking at Wagyu Beef. This is a special cow that is in Japan and fed the best grass and special treatment — massages are common, and farmers make sure to speak soft words around the cows to make them feel more at peace. They have plenty of space to roam, which means that the meat tends to be a lot tenderer by default. The type of marbling that you get with Wagyu cows just can’t be beat.

200 grams of a fillet goes for more than 100 dollars.

Especially interesting is the fact that the Food Network ran an episode of Iron Chef America that was nothing but a battle of Wagyu beef. Even though it was American Wagyu — that is, Wagyu cows bred with Angus to create a hybrid that’s still juicy and tender, as the United States outlawed the importing of Wagyu beef from Japan completely — that’s still an expensive show to run!

4. Amazing Chocolate!

This is chocolate that’s considered to be the most expensive in the world. It’s called Chocopologie, and it’s produced by Knipschildt. The chocolate is $2,600 per pound and is a beautiful chocolate truffle. It contains a black truffle (the mushroom kind!) and 70% Valrhona cacao. Those that have had it say it’s creamy and delicious, which is always a plus. The price is still too steep for most people to ever taste it.

5. Kopi Luwak coffee

There’s only 500 pounds of beans produced every year that are true Kopi Luwak. This raises the price of these special coffee beans to $300/pound, which means that you’re definitely not going to be drinking this every day!

What a lot of people don’t realize about this coffee is that the beans are actually extracted from the waste of civet cats. There’s something about the digestion process that produces coffee with amazing flavor, but knowing this little fact doesn’t make you crave this coffee, does it? You won’t need to worry about whether or not Starbucks is going to serve this anytime soon — they won’t. It’s just too expensive to be served on a mass appeal and the production is so low that they wouldn’t really be able to serve it regularly.

So there you have it — five of the world’s most expensive foods. We left off the sandwiches, burgers, and sundaes. We could have also included caviar, but we decided to leave it off too.

So tell us — would you try any of these foods? Have you tried any of these foods already? If so, how did you like them? Don’t be shy — you know you want to comment!

For most of us, a license plate is just a string of letters and numbers that we hardly remember. Unless we’re at a hotel filling out our guest card — then we have to try to crane our neck to see what our license plate actually is.

Then there are custom license plates. Do you really want to get a custom license plate? Even though you get to keep it from year to year and just pay a small fee the truth is that sometimes we really want to blend into a crowd of cars. If you’re well known for speeding around town, do you really want to have a custom license plate that says IMSPDR? You might think you’re talking about being a spider, but the police will get “speeder” — and handle you accordingly.

Still, there’s a coolness factor to custom license plates that definitely gets our attention. Who hasn’t dreamed of the perfect car for them equipped with not just power windows and leather seats, but a nice custom license plate too?

Check out these 5 funny license plates — we enjoyed them, and we think you will too!

1. Do What the License Plate Says, Fool!

You know, it’s really funny when people take online speak (you know, LOL, WTF and OMG) and put it on license plates. This car — ha ha Jetta! — takes it one step up with the classic STFU, PLS plate.

Do we really have to spell out what STFU PLS means? We didn’t think so. Maybe the driver is telling people to STFU because they’re driving a Jetta. Those Volkswagen people can be kinda touchy.

2. Nerd’s Revenge?

Everyone picks on the nerds in high school. It’s just a way of life. However, in this society, nerds are starting to strike back in full force. For starters, you have the King of Nerds, Bill Gates, as one of the richest men in the world. He built an entire fortune on being a nerd. We can’t tell what type of Benz is being driven here, but hey — it’s a Benz, and that means that you can’t afford it on your desk job. Just being honest.

3. Give Me A … Gas Guzzling Environmentally Unsound Monster?

OK, we admit that we’re a little against big honking SUVs, but that’s what makes this license plate funny. “Give Me A…” and then the big HUMMER stamp on the bumper makes you realize that they’re talking about the love of their precious Hummer.

Of course, it could be anything. Give me a steak, give me a bath, give me a… well, you get the idea.

4. Sleazebag?

We don’t get this at all. Even though we’re not big SUV/van fans, we don’t think they’re sleazebags just for driving one. Is this a trick played on a husband by a wife that suspects he’s been seeing another woman? Or is this Charlie Sheen’s car on the sly? We’re not quite sure.

Still, it’s hilarious. I mean, when you’re down at the DMV filling out what type of plate you want, do you really spell out sleazebag on the vehicle? We think not.

5. It’s Pirate Time!

A little SUV heavy, but there’s really some funny license plates here! What could be more ironic than driving behind a Jeep that has a spare tire cover with a pirate symbol?

Having a license plate that reads AARRR. The driver definitely has a sense of humor. I wonder if they drive around town a lot on Talk Like a Pirate Day — I certainly would!

There are a lot of fun license plates out there. Some are sillier — we saw one that was nothing but 8’s and B’s — someone explain that one to us and we might laugh. There are even some that are pretty obvious – B00BS for example. Those come a dime a dozen. We picked these five because we thought they were the funniest of the group. Now, we might not have covered your favorite, and that’s okay too. If there’s one that you think we should add, just tell us — we’ll get you hooked up!

Ever felt like you were losing your mind? So do we! There are definitely times where we feel like we’re really losing it, but at the end of the day, you’re still okay. However, there are people that really do suffer from mental disorders, and we wish them the best in getting the help that they need.

Since some of our readers are kinda touchy, it has to be said — we like to mock strange and bizarre things, but in no way are we ever mocking the people that actually go through a mental disorder day in and day out. It’s not pleasant and it’s not fun.

That said, onto the crazy: we found some really strange mental disorders that you have to hear about. Really.

1. Stockholm Syndrome

Now, we had to start with one that everyone probably knows — but some are still a bit in the dark about it. For example, Stockholm syndrome is where hostages start feeling loyalty and sympathy towards the person that captured them.

Yet do you know where the name actually comes from? It’s come from a bank robbery that went down in Stockholm, Sweden, where the robbers held employees prisoner for six whole days. The victims began feeling sympathy towards their captors — even going as far as to refuse to testify in court! One woman from the hostage pool even married one of the captors, which goes to show you how long lasting Stockholm syndrome can really be.

Hostage situations aren’t the only time where psychologists talk about Stockholm syndrome. When there are issues of spousal or child abuse, that’s when psychologists study SS in greater detail.

2. Paris Syndrome

If there’s one prevailing stereotype about the Japanese, it is that it’s a society of very polite people. If they bump into you, you’re definitely going to hear an apology. Paris syndrome ties into this culture of politeness in a few ways. First off, it’s where Japanese tourists and other nationals come to Paris and they have a complete mental breakdown. There are millions of Japanese tourists that visit this beautiful and old city, and there are a dozen every year that just can’t seem to get over the culture shock.

For everything that Japanese people as a group like, Paris isn’t. For starters, there is a culture of rudeness, especially when you consider that so many people call Paris home. It can be very difficult to actually connect to anyone in the city, because everyone always has somewhere else to be!

The syndrome forms because there is an expectation of the way Paris should be — and unfortunately, the actual city really doesn’t measure up to this standard. It’s just something that tends to blow some people away, and they have to be flown back home to their own country.

Want a little extra crazy? The Japanese embassy in Paris even has a 24hr hotline — staffed with live operators — to help tourists get over the culture shock faster. If they nee dot be hospitalized, the embassy makes the arrangements. Imagine that!

3. Stendhal Syndrome

Can too much beauty be a bad thing? It is when you have Stendhal Syndrome. This is an illness where the body is simply overwhelmed in the presence of a beautiful work of art. There’s something that captures the mind so deeply that it’s unable to actually process anything else. You get to a point where you really want to make sure that you don’t let the moment end, but it just overtakes all of your emotions. This can definitely be a problem.

If you’re curious about the name, then worry no more — here’s the answer: it’s from the famous author Stendhal, who wrote about the syndrome while visiting Florence, Italy. Read more »

Ah, the Japanese. Is there anything that they don’t create? We admire the Japanese people as a whole for being polite as well as creative, though there are some things in Japan that are just plain wacky. It’s not like the Japanese don’t know that we make fun of them online in more than one place — they seem to come up with wacky things just for us to be puzzled over.

Take soda drinks. Whether you call them pop or soda, one thing that they all have in common is the fizz and the sugar — though where that sugar comes from is often subject to debate as well as new creative outlets.

Here’s another fact — there are over 1,000 soft drinks that are introduced into Japan every year. As you might imagine, not all of them are tasty. In fact, most of them fail. Does that stop drink manufacturers from creating crazy things? Of course not!

We wanted to showcase this creative drive by showing you 7 wacky Japanese soda drinks that you had to check out!

1. Pepsi Ice Cucumber

Pepsi Ice Cucumber is the merging of two things that seem pretty innocent — Pepsi, and cucumber flavor? Now, we’re not against salad greens. Not at all. In fact, we’re making a salad right now, so we would appreciate that you tell our mothers that, okay? Mom doesn’t need to nag us about getting all of our greens anymore than she already does.

Still, there’s something chilling about Pepsi Ice Cucumber, and it’s not a refreshing flavor that we would love to drink. The Pepsi company introduced this little number to the Japanese market in 2007, and we’ve been spending the last four years figuring out why people find this drink so appealing. We’ll never understand it at all.

2. Hot Calpis, anyone?

This is a pretty terrifying drink. Let’s face it, when you hear about Hot Calpis, you think about that special toilet water in a cup — but no, it’s actually not that bad.

It’s actually a milk-based soft drink that is reported to have more of a yogurt taste. It even comes in fruity flavors, just in case you like your Calpis to be interesting.

However, this is not just a drink for the Japanese market: it’s also a hit in Latin countries. Imagine that, a multicultural soft drink!

3. Mother’s Milk

Now, around here, we’re pretty partial to boobs. Have you seen our article about 7 hot poker babes? Plenty of boobs there. However, we’re not really a fan of Mother’s Milk, if you get the idea.

We’re not really sure if Mother’s Milk is actually well, you know — mother’s milk (as in, right from the breast), but the naming similarities are really blowing our minds right now. Let’s just drink soda and get away from this mother’s milk fiasco completely, shall we?

4. Water Salad — Um…we’ll pass!

Isn’t this a crazy profit grab? Water Salad is salad-flavored water. As in, you are basically buying the mass produced version of making a salad and running it through the salad spinner a few times before draining the water out. The water that’s been tangling with your salad greens is what Cola-Cola is actually putting into aluminum cans and selling in Japan.

What’s even more interesting is that it comes in different flavors. So you don’t have to just settle for that generic salad taste — you can even get it in a nice citrus flavor too! Read more »