How many gourmands and foodies have been stuck at a railway station, airport or windswept and deserted city centre at an unsociable hour, where the only source of nourishment and “food” is a fast food vending machine?
A slow food version would display on its screen a menu based on the current (fresh, in season) stock in its refrigerator. The hungry user would first select a meal, and then swipe her or his credit card.
Suppose the user had selected “Cornish pasty”. The machine would first extend a bowl containing the correct amount of flour, into which it had just cut butter and added salt. The screen (and the audio prompt) instructs the user to rub in the butter . Then the machine retracts the bowl, adds a splash of cold water and rolls the pastry into a pasty case shape. Meanwhile, the filling is automatically cut and processed on a little conveyor belt in front of the customer, to allow selection and discarding of unwanted pieces. Then they are all tipped into a bowl for mixing, and little compartments open containing a selection of seasonings for the customer to select and add (to taste). Finally the machine withdraws the filling and adds it to the case, before presenting the final uncooked creation to the customer for final shaping and patting. Then the machine pops it into its internal oven, and presents the customer with a card printed with the finish time and with a security barcode also on it.
The customer returns 1/2 an hour later, swipes the token, and retrieves the pasty.-- pocmloc, May 29 2011 Sushi vending machine [xaviergisz, May 30 2011] Yes.-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 29 2011 I like the concept of this, but I think there are unfortunately too many people who would think it 'funny' to add unwanted ingredients.
If the whole process was contained inside the machine, I like this idea. Maybe checkboxes or on-screen prompts to pick your pasty fillings.-- Skrewloose, May 29 2011 ... or a Big Mac.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 30 2011 Of course. tsh-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 30 2011 Aargh I thought this was going to be a save the world soda machine that used tapwater plus concentrated flavors plus advanced chemistry to make sugar out of air to create a soda machine that could produce soda with only a hundredth the frequency of being refilled
that is a save the world thing as we have all heard about avoiding containerized beverages plus all the energy that goes to shipping them. Thus a pop machine that made sugar from co2 n h20 (somehow) could just get refilled once a year or something
I think if you can make sugar from air other polymers (cups) might be possible as well-- beanangel, Jun 01 2011 This machine is not practical. How about one which dispenses the standard tasteless plastic- wrapped sandwich, or atherosclerosis-inducing packet of crisps, but veeeery slooowly.-- mouseposture, Jun 01 2011 I was thinking that upon ordering a drink, an oak barrel is deployed and filled with your chosen liquor before maturing for a few years, being bottled and finally served in a wine glass all on a single archimedes' screw-type dispenser.-- mitxela, Jun 01 2011 At which point the machine would produce a cup containing a beverage almost but not quite completely unlike tea.-- CyberCod, Jun 02 2011 random, halfbakery