Think Outside the Bowl

Hi folks,

It's been a busy past few weeks in the Concords household. Our good friends Sarah and Michael recently moved to Seattle, and we've had a blast hanging out with them. In fact, we've had so much fun that blogging kind of fell by the wayside. But don't despair- Mr. Concord is here to enlighten you once again!

Many of you may have realized that my last post was a work of fiction. I do not, in fact, own a family-themed restaurant, nor do I intend to at any time in the near future. I'll admit that the whole thing was rather pointless. Let's face it, there are countless restaurants in the real world that are much weirder than the made-up one I blogged about last month. Which brings me to this week's topic: Modern Toilet. This is an actual Taiwanese restaurant chain whose concept revolves around eating out of a toilet. I shit you not (no pun intended). Check out their website here. Customers sit on toilets and eat food out of toilet-shaped bowls. Drinks are served in portable urinal flasks, and chocolate soft-serve ice cream is made to appear like a pile of dung. They even have something called a "hot pot". I imagine that the food is probably decent, but I doubt that the bathroom theme does much to whet one's appetite. Then again, maybe the Taiwanese have different tastes than the rest of us. Or perhaps the whole thing is an elaborate parody of the fast-food industry: if something tastes like shit, why not serve it in a toilet bowl? Whatever the reason, it's a fascinating example of Asian culture and ingenuity. America, the bar has been raised.