Hot...Rock? Hot Rock!
"The greatest adventure in dining has arrived!" claims the website of "Hot Rock," the vaguely appealing theme restaurant sensation that is sweeping probably nowhere! The idea is simple: diners are given a rock. The rock is hot! Then, by putting meat on the rock, plus just a dash of time, you get...hot meat on a rapidly cooling rock! And the juices barely sputter in your face and all over your clothes! Also, you could cook vegetables on it but what are you some sort of candy-ass!
If warming up a rock in your oven, only to gingerly remove it and place it in a tray to then begin to cook your meal sounds like your idea of a dinner "experience," then you can get one Home Cooking Set from Team Hot Rock for only $80, plus shipping. (Don't forget to pick up the Hot Rock-brand "Premium Grilling Salt" for only $5. Salt is the original hot rock! Besides lava I mean!)
Product Page [HotRock.us via Kitchen Contraptions via CrunchGear]
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Maybe it's about time to start a "fail" category. Unless it's against the boingboing policy to hurt designer's feelings...
This seems to be an over engineered 'pierrade' (an amazon.co.uk search lists several different versions already available.)
Normally these things are on top of Raclettes, or around Fondues.
I had this in a restaurant in Germany some years ago. It was amazing. Probably too much of a nuisance to do at home, but if you ever get a chance to try it you might have to eat your bitter, cynical words.
The picture is deceptive, by the way. You don't stick a slab of steak on the rock, you cut thin slices and cook them for just a second or two.
@3 AGOODEY
*This seems to be an over engineered 'pierrade'*
Or Himalayan Salt Block cooking.
I went to an ishiyaki restaurant in Frankfurt, Germany. It was a Japanese theme restaurant that had cooking stones on the tables and you ordered a meat and vegetable platter and cooked them on the hot stones and dipped them in sauces. It reminded me of shabu-shabu except there was a hot cooking stone instead of a pot.
These were somewhat popular in steak restaurants and the like here in Australia in the mid-90s. I had one once, and then the novelty wore off.
Of course, Korean restaurants and homes have been doing this for 3000 years, and you can buy a cooking stone at most good Korean markets for about $25.
for eighty shiny you can pretend to eat like a caveman! yabadadoo!
I prefer to cook my steak on a pyre of burning bloggers. They're so much cheaper.
This does remind me a bit of my favorite winter dish, dolsot bibimbap - which is bibimbap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibimbap) served in a hot dolsot (stone bowl) with a raw egg on top. The crispy rice on the bottom becomes the real star of the dish.
mmmm slashdot bitmap!
This post made me giggle :) Thanks Joel!
A P.F. Chang's rip-off (now defunct) here in Milwaukee had this thing on the menu. My girlfriend ordered it and they brought out an assortment of raw meat and vegetables. Having a customer handling raw chicken seems like a lawsuit in the making.
Anonymous at #4 and #5 is right. It was marketed as hot "rock fondue" when I tried it, came with small pieces of elk, bison, shark, and frog legs, and was dee-lish.
they do say "the proof is in the pudding" or in this case the tremendously tasty steaks being both tremendous and tasty.
how quick you are to mock this newfangled old fashioned hotrock, shame on you Joel.
suck it and see
Had this two times in the mid 90's while I was stationed in Germany. One at the airport hotel in Frankfurt and one at a restaurant along the Rhine river in Rudeshiem. Both times they brought out a full size steak. You don't slice the steak up at all, it cooks the whole thing right there just the way you might like it. Both times along with the German beer was excellent and a fun time. If you never tried it? Well it's not messy, steak is hot and juicy, service is quick and too bad you've missed the experience.
Cooler than that rock is the cooking on Himalayan Salt Blocks...
Check this out: Cooking on Himalayan Salt Blocks
or this: Himalayan Salt Blocks
Interesting stuff!
my local fire department just banned all grills in high rise condos like ours. They won't even allow electric grills, the bastards. I wonder if this thing can properly sear a steak? If nothing else, it should do up fish, bacon, etc. and keep the stink outdoors. I'm buyin one asap!
A (possible) better use would be to heat it with meal, then use it to keep the food warm.