New from the Ritz-Carlton Chicago, via a press release: The Jewish deli Bento box lunch for meeting attendees. I can’t figure out if this is super-creative and fabulous or just bizarre.

When you’ve been on the road a while, the thought of going out for yet another restaurant meal can be daunting. So some enterprising person put together this wiki on how to cook food in a hotel room. The recipes seem to center around using a coffeemaker and/or an iron, neither of which is going to earn a place in my kitchen any time soon. But hey, if you’re desperate enough, I guess coffeepot oatmeal might start to sound good. Me, I’ll go for room service, thank you very much!

Speaking of thanks, a big one to Nancy for the pointer.

I mean, I really love ice cream. Thought nothing could break me of my ever-lasting bond with the cool and creamy stuff. Until I read this: The 20 most outrageous flavors of Japanese ice cream. I can’t decide which puts me off my feed the most, pit viper or raw horseflesh…

Who else but Patti Shock should be the one to write the book on meetings-related food and beverage? And write it she did: A Meeting Planner’s Guide to Catered Events. In addition to writing F&B columns for our magazines, Patti is professor and director of distance learning with the Harrah College of Hotel Administration, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. And she makes for a cute caricature, too.

Psst, don’t tell anyone, but the real reason we gain weight may be that we’re thinking too much. Yup, the harder our brains are working, the more food we eat, even though we’re not really expending any more energy than we would be just lounging around.

So while it’d probably be in your attendees’ best interests to give them a nice exercise session after a tough, mentally grinding one, they’ll likely be happier with a big old pile of food. But you already knew that, didn’t you? Still, it’s nice to have some science to back it up.

Small, local farmers have been enjoying a boon these days as more restaurants try to buy ingredients locally, but it appears there may be a problem, at least in Minnesota: Minnesota Monthly’s Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl heard from a local restauranteur who was told that buying food directly from farmers is illegal. Could this possibly be true?

(Thanks to the Minnesota Hospitality Journal blog for the link!)

A couple of items in this morning’s Boston Globe caught my eye: First is this article about what happens to the loose change that people don’t remember to pick up on the other side of security. It goes to pay for screeners and equipment. From the article:

The TSA has been allowed to pocket the change since 2004 when it lobbied Congress to change the law so the money could be used within the organization instead of going to a general fund in the federal treasury. Since then, the nickels and dimes have been adding up: Between Sept. 30, 2004, and Oct. 1, 2007, the TSA accumulated more than $1 million from 450 US commercial airports - a tiny fraction of its $18 billion budget.

And then there’s this one about how Dinner in the Sky, a Belgium-based company that offers the view without the room by hauling diners, table, food, and servers 180 feet in the air by crane, is coming to the U.S. Frankly, just thinking about it makes my stomach flip-flop, but I guess it might be the ultimate experience for a group with no fear-of-heights-challenged members.

And speaking of making my stomach uneasy, someone who shall remain nameless sent me a link to this video for Extended Stay Hotels. It’s a little sleezy, very uncomfortable, and made me want to whoops my coffee. So of course, I have to share it with you, with a warning that you really probably don’t want to watch it.

And via a Twitter tweet from Guy Kawasaki, I learned about a travel-booking site I hadn’t heard of before: ESkyGuide.com. I haven’t had time to play with it yet, but I plan to check it out.

and its repertoire is limited to just one kind of drink (a Falling Water) but this Rube Goldberg machine/drink dispenser sure is fun to watch!

I saw this video about how to make caviar out of carrot juice, and had to share. Who knows, with food prices rising the way they are, this could be the centerpiece of your next banquet. (Oh, I sure hope not!)

If your VIPs have adventurous tastebuds, you may want to order some vittles from Edible.com, which offers up tantalizing yet horrifying (to me, anyway) F&B options like scorpion vodka, green crocodile curry, weasel coffee and reindeer pate. Yumm.

(via BoingBoing)