Friday, April 1, 2011

April Fool's: Let's be careful out there


If you're paddling around in the food world online today, be careful and note the date. I almost got taken in this morning by the Manhattan User's Guide posting on the Colonel Mustard Food Truck, a condiments-only truck that follows the other food trucks to provide gourmet condiments for your hot dog.


It's true: April Fool's is like catnip in the food world. It dates back to the greatest April 1 stunt of all time, the BBC's 1957 report on the harvest of spaghetti trees in Italy. It's still a classic.


And if I may humbly submit the picture above, I think we did a pretty good job in 2010, when I wrote about the world's first pork-themed spa, in Shanklin, N.C. To get the picture above, photographer Gary O'Brien gamely followed me to Grateful Growers farm in Denver, where Cassie Parsons and Natalie Veres wrangled a piglet for us so we would get a picture of model Michelle Herd with pancetta eye patches and lard facial cream, snuggled happily on a lounge chair plopped down in a pasture.


Some things can't be faked, though. See that smile on the pig's face? Gary was fussing with his camera when I looked up and saw this beatific look come over the young pig, nestled in the arms of our model. Scared to startle the pig, I started hissing, "Gary -- shoot the pig! Shoot the pig!"


And yes -- our pig spa actually did fool a number of people. Some of them were still contacting me months later, asking for information on how to book a room there.

2 comments:

Julie @ Willow Bird Baking said...

I would totally book an appointment at the pig spa -- HA. I remember this from when it was first published -- and the piglet smile was so adorable!

Larry said...

The www.UniversityOfCharlotte.com is giving away Diplomas today.

Send one to your friend or get one for your pet.