Before Astro, these were the robots people invited home

Amazon announced its Astro home robot on Monday, which is designed to be an Alexa on wheels that can also bring you stuff (if other people load it into the cargo bay) and act as a sort of guard dog. With a touchscreen for a face and the ability to move itself around a single story of your house, it’s a bit like the personal robots from decades of science fiction. Given that Amazon seemingly wants to continue making home robots, though, we figured we’d go through a little history to look at some previous attempts.

Of course, there’s plenty of discussion to be had about what does or does not count as a robot — to anyone with a smart home setup, Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant could be considered robots, as they can do any number of tasks if you buy the necessary hardware. But for this list, we’re going to look at things that are either billed specifically as household robots or are robots that we’d really love to invite into our homes.

The HERO didn’t look very friendly.

Image: Byte Magazine / The Internet Archive

HERO

Release year: 1982

What it could do: Teach you what it’s like to build a robot

The HERO, which stands for Heath Educational Robot, was a massive tank of a machine that was designed to be, as the name suggests, an educational tool. It came as a kit (though you could also get it pre-built), and most of its utility came from what you learned putting it together. I’m not going to do an Ahoy-style research journey to prove that it was absolutely the first home robot that ever went on sale, but being from the 1980s, it definitely came in on the ground floor. The decade would later see a variety of other home educational robots similar to the HERO.

According to a Byte magazine article from the time, it could talk, be controlled with a remote, and could even pick up a beverage — that is, after you assembled the add-on mechanical arm, which the author says took 10 hours. Does that make it more useful than what Amazon just announced in 2021? I guess that’s up for you to decide. You can watch a demo of the Hero Jr., a successor to HERO, here.

Nintendo R.O.B.

Release year: 1985

What it could do: Sell NESs

When Nintendo went to sell its Family Computer in the US, it had a problem: video games were about as attractive to most consumers as toxic waste, as the industry had more or less just imploded. Its solution was to instead market the console as a toy, calling it the Nintendo Entertainment System and including a robotic pal named Robotic Operating Buddy. R.O.B was a big part of much of Nintendo’s early marketing for the NES, making potential customers look and say, “Wow, what can that do?”

The answer was that it could move gyroscopes and plastic tokens around to let you play all of two games. R.O.B. turned out to be better at making kids want an NES than helping them play it — some commenters have said that playing games designed for it is more fun if you have another human press the controller’s buttons on the controller instead of the bot. The fact that it wirelessly received signals from the TV was pretty neat, though, and the NES did pretty well for itself. So despite not having the robot servant capabilities that its looks implied, maybe R.O.B. did everything it needed to.

Aibo

Release year: 1999

What it could do: Fill my heart with warmth

Sony’s Aibo was a late-90s robotic pet dog, which was designed to be more of a companion than a servant. And it is, at least in my opinion, probably the cutest home robot. According to the user manual uploaded to an Aibo fansite (PDF), Aibo’s personality would change as it got older, and how it behaved as an adult would differ depending on how you treated it. Sony also claimed that Aibo would play and run around your house if you raised it right — otherwise, it’d be like my non-robotic cat and just nap all day.

Some people and families formed an actual emotional connection with Aibo, like they would with a biological pet. There are genuinely sad stories of people who held funerals for their robot dogs, which broke down after Sony stopped fixing them. Yes, it does seem like something out of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but you try living with something that looks and acts like a dog for years without falling in love with it.

Okay, no, Sega’s iDog doesn’t count, because all it really did was kinda dance to music and get moody (shoutout to my childhood friend who had the iFish, by the way).

There have been several iterations of Aibo over the years, along with attempts at robotic pets by other companies. Sony announced a new version of Aibo in 2017 and appears to still be selling it — though the website said there was only one left in stock when I looked.

Robot vacuums

Release year: 2001, first Roomba introduced in 2002

What it can do: Clean your floors and freak out bio-Aibos (dogs)

Companies have been envisioning self-controlled vacuums for decades, but one of the first ones you could actually buy was the Electrolux Trilobite, which was released in 2001. It was made by a huge name in high-end vacuums but was upstaged the next year with the introduction of the iRobot Roomba. The robotic floor-cleaners were basically primitive versions of the ones we have today — they’d bump around your room until the floors were clean. We’ve also seen plenty of variations on that same concept, with companies introducing robots that mop hardwood floors and even mow your lawn.

Arguably, robot vacuums (and other single-purpose automated machines) are the most successful home robots we’ve seen so far. While they can still struggle in hilarious ways, they’ve come a long way since the Trilobite, and some models are even able to empty themselves. That’s not even mentioning the various ways people hack into or strap things onto their robot vacuums to make them more useful.

Image: Sense Medical

Paro

Release year: 2004

What it can do: Provide emotional support

Paro is a robotic baby seal that was designed to act as a sort of therapy for people in elderly care or for people who otherwise need emotional support. It makes seal sounds, can move, and even charges with a cable shaped like a pacifier. In other words, it’s exceedingly cute and has been used in nursing homes as an alternative to real-life animals for pet therapy, according to The Wall Street Journal. Paro isn’t going to bite anyone or cause an allergic reaction, and it doesn’t need to be fed anything except electricity.

There have been debates about whether robots should have such a role in elder care, and whether they may take the place of human relationships. But as someone who is frequently distressed, I would love to have one of these to hug (though, given Paro’s multi-thousand dollar price tag, I may have to settle for the Qoobo, a robot pillow with a tail).

Pepper

Release year: 2014

What it was supposed to do: Understand your emotions

Pepper ended up being mainly used as a billboard and a way to greet people in shops and airports (or the Smithsonian), but when it was announced by Softbank, it was pitched as a robot able to understand human emotions and take care of babies. Physically, it had actual arms and wheels to move around with, as well as a screen that it could use to display things like its name or info about Softbank’s latest phone plan.

It wasn’t particularly successful at connecting with people on an emotional level and certainly didn’t live up to some of the ads that depicted it comforting someone who’s crying — perhaps it was just too ambitious too early, or maybe it was just too dystopian to keep around. Softbank stopped making Pepper earlier this year.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Jibo

Release year: Sold on IndieGoGo in 2014, arrived in 2017

What it could do: Dance

The crowdfunded Jibo robot may be one of the most loved home robots, despite the fact that it didn’t actually do a lot. It was meant to be a “social” robot that would greet you by name and that you could have conversations with. What it actually did best was dance with its little robot body (including when it was announcing its own death) and hem and haw about whether climate change is real. Despite that, there are still those trying to keep Jibo alive after its original makers sold it in 2020.

Image: Asus

Asus Zenbo

Release year: Didn’t make it to the US, announced in 2016

What it could do: Control your smart home and basically act like a tablet that can follow you

Zenbo was announced as a $600 robot with many of the same features that Astro is promising today — Asus said it could act as a security guard, contact people for help in case of a fall, and display recipes and videos on its face. It proves difficult to actually find evidence of it existing though — there are no eBay listings for it, and Asus’s support site doesn’t seem to remember the Zenbo.

I did find evidence that Asus actually released this product in the form of an unboxing video from Malaysia, but it’s not easy to get your hands on — Asus’s Zenbo website directs you to contact the company’s sales team if you want to purchase the robot’s education and health-focused successors, the Zenbo Juniors I and II.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Anki Vector

Release year: 2018

What it could do: Make faces at you as it explored your desk

The Anki Vector was a follow-up to another toy robot, the Cozmo. You could get it to play games with you, dance along to your music, and express various emotions with its eyes. Like Jibo, it also had a built-in voice assistant, and also like Jibo, that voice assistant was just OK. But dang, was Vector cute, as it drove around your desk, moving its little forklift arm. The company that created it went out of business, but you can buy a home server to keep it running from another company that took over Anki’s assets.

Image: FoldiMate

Foldimate

Announced year: 2018

What it can do: fold your clothes

There were two robots that promised to fold your clothes at CES 2018, and neither of them really worked. In 2019, though, Foldimate returned with a working prototype that could actually fold a shirt in about five seconds. Is that worth the estimated $1,500 to $2,000 pre-order price that Foldimate lists on its website? I guess it depends on how many clothes you fold. Either way, the machine isn’t out yet (and even its design doesn’t seem particularly nailed down), so you may be stuck folding your laundry by hand for a while longer. Bummer!

Lovot, mind-controlling someone to hug it.

Image: Lovot

Lovot

Release year: 2020

What it can do: accept your love

Lovot may be the most human robot of all because it’s mainly designed to feel needed — according to its creators, it “won’t do any of your work” and “begs for attention and gets in the way of those it lives with.” To help it achieve its purpose of obtaining all your affection, it has wheels, cameras, and microphones that it can use to recognize people and steer itself towards them. In that way, it’s a little like Astro, where it’ll follow people around — but instead of sticking a camera in their face, it’s just asking for them to pick it up and hug its soft body. You can also tickle it to make it fall asleep, and sorry I can’t write any more about it because I’m trying to figure out how to buy one in the US.

Image: Mira Robotics

Ugo

Release year: 2020

What it can do: act as a remote set of arms

The Ugo is a home robot, but not in the traditional sense that we may think of one. Instead of having an advanced AI robobrain, it just has a human controlling it, like a more functional version of the iPad-on-wheels telepresence robots. The human is able to move the robot, as well as operate its arms by using a pair of VR-style controllers.

The Ugo was originally pitched as a butler, either for the elderly or for families who don’t have time for housework. The World is One News reports that companies have also rented the Ugo to help sanitize buildings during the pandemic. It remains to be seen if it’ll actually be particularly helpful — in the past, a hotel that had robots do various tasks like carry luggage and check in customers found that the system actually created more work for human employees, instead of making their lives easier.

Image: Elephant Robotics

MarsCat

Release year: 2021(?)

What it can do: Be a cat

The MarsCat is like a cat version of the Aibo, and its Kickstarter launched in late 2019. Its makers, a company called Elephant Robotics, say that the robokitty will play with cat toys, accept scratches, and respond to commands like “come here.” You should also be able to program MarsCat yourself if you want, as its brain is a Raspberry Pi.

The latest update on the MarsCat’s Kickstarter page is from earlier this month and says that the cats have shipped, though there are only two commenters who claim to have gotten one (and one says theirs is broken).

This bot would indeed be handy.

Video: Samsung

Bot Handy

Announced in: 2021

What it’s supposed to do: Decorate my home with flowers

At CES this year, Samsung showed off its Bot Handy robot, which looks a bit like an oscillating fan with a robotic arm. The bot brought the presenter a drink of water, something that the Astro can’t do by itself. Samsung also showed it using that arm to put dirty dishes in a dishwasher, and a towel in a laundry basket. Samsung said that the Bot Handy was “in development,” but it’s an extraordinarily ambitious concept — for it to work like Samsung’s demo, it would need lots of abilities that don’t really exist yet, so it’s not likely this particular bot will make it into our homes. Speaking of…

Image: Tesla

Tesla Bot

Announced in: 2021

What it’s supposed to do: Usher in luxury space communism by replacing labor

Earlier this year, Elon Musk got up on stage and said that Tesla was working on a humanoid robot that it would build at some point in 2022. He showed it off by having someone dressed as the robot come out and dance and, after the awkwardness, announced “obviously that was not real” (I’m not sure anyone was fooled).

Musk did promise that the bot will be real at some point, and Tesla says that it’ll be a “general purpose” robot, which will be able to carry out “unsafe, repetitive, or boring” tasks. Is that a realistic vision for next year? I’m laughing too hard to answer. If only I had a robot to bring me a glass of water.

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Prepare Your Closets for Fall Like a Goddamned Adult

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It is time. The seasons have officially turned, the air has gotten that crisp morning edge, and the humidity has left the building. (At least where I live. Sorry, Florida). Which means? It’s time to flip those closets for fall. And we’re not just talking about clothes here. New seasons often call for new linens, new leisure activities, and new sports gear at the ready. Here’s how you can “fall” into fall (ugh, we know) a bit more organized.

Get rid of unused items

In the dark corner of every closet there are those wrong-size, wrong-age, out-of-date, no longer used items that we keep holding onto just in case. In case of what? We’re suddenly seized with a desire to wear that freebie hat from the Eagles game—or pick up an activity we crashed and burned on three years ago? Take an honest inventory using a ruthless attitude. (It’s just stuff! It’s OK). Anything that hasn’t been used in more than a year—toss or donate. If you hate to throw out clothes that have one small hole or stain, look into textile recycling near you.

Give your clothes a fall makeover

Once you’ve unloaded your fall wardrobe, give all your clothes a once-over. Does anything need a trip to the tailor or dry cleaner? How are your coat buttons—hanging on for dear life? Any sweaters need to be de-pilled? Check shoes and boots to see if any need to be weather-proofed, polished, or re-soled.

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Remember to give some love to the clothes you’ll be storing, as well. Rather than chucking them wholesale into a cardboard box until next spring, identify which pieces may need mending, lint rolling, or dry cleaning before storing them in a dry, dark space (you can even use a spare suitcase for this).

Organize by person, not type of gear

Many family coat closets, ours included, are organized by type of clothing or warm weather gear. A box for kid’s gloves, a bin for scarves, a shelf for hats. Instead of organizing by category, though, try organizing by person. That way, each individual’s stuff will be easy to find and put away—in an open-topped bin with their name on it.

Get your shoes spiffed up

Instead of just tossing out-of-season shoes into a large plastic tub to stink and fester for the next six months, give them a shoe spa day. (They may have caked-on dirt, dust, or other questionable debris you don’t want rubbing off on the rest.) Scrub them with a toothbrush or soft bristle brush, baby wipes, or detergent and water on a rag or microfiber cloth. Treat stinky insoles to a baking soda sprinkle, and stuff rags or old socks into shoes to prevent random folds and crinkles from forming while they rest for the winter.

Shape up your shoe storage

Speaking of shoes—bye-bye sandals, hello chunky-heeled boots. The volume of footwear goes up in fall and winter. What served to adequately store your summer shoes may no longer work as temperatures drop. Professional organizer Michele Vig suggests asking yourself if you are a “kicker or a placer” when taking off your shoes. If you kick, outfit your closet with labeled bins each person can easily drop them into. If you place, shoe racks, shelves, or a hanging door caddy is the way to go.

Bedeck your bed

If you didn’t wash your fall sheets and duvet covers before storing them last spring, now’s the time. If you did, you’re one step ahead—all they need is a quick fluff on low or medium heat in the dryer. (Same for decorative pillows.) To kick off that musty odor of storage, give them a tumble with dryer sheets or these freshly scented alternatives. For warm-weather sheets; fold the flat sheet, fitted sheet, and one pillowcase together, then insert them into the second pillowcase to store.

Check your game situation

We’ve all been frolicking outside for the past several months, but ‘tis the season to hunker down and bond as a family by the fire. Look through your board game and jigsaw puzzle collection. Are there any that are no longer age-appropriate for anyone in the household (we’re looking at you, 4- by 3-foot Thomas the Tank Engine floor puzzle). Are any missing pieces that will never be found? Are there boxes that need to be replaced? Donate what your family has outgrown, repurpose or toss those that are no longer functional, and use old shoeboxes and Ziploc bags to give beat up, but still operational, games a new home.

Peruse your pantry and baking supplies

While a pantry is not technically a closet, it’s a shelved food storage unit with a door so, it counts. Check expiration dates and throw out any dry or canned goods past their prime. Place those about to expire at the front of your pantry, where you’ll see and remember to use them (fingers crossed).

It’s baking season too, boo. While you may have hung up your apron during the summer heat, that bread pan will be calling your name soon enough. Stock up on any staples like flour, sugar, brown sugar, and baking powder. On a personal note: You need more muffin tin liners. It doesn’t matter if you know what you need them for, you need them. Oh, and one can never have too many chocolate chips. Should you also get some of that top-tier pumpkin puree before they sell out? Yes. Yes, you should.

  

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Dont Say These Things to Someone Who Has Lost Weight (and What to Say Instead)

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In our body-obsessed culture, you may experience an understandable urge to say something—anything—when you notice a friend, co-worker, or acquaintance has lost some weight since you last saw them. But even the most well-intentioned comments can end up sounding dismissive, fatphobic, or simply rude.

Here’s your guiding rule: Because you never fully know the reasons behind someone’s weight loss, you should avoid attaching any sort of morality to it, good or bad. Below are common things that you may want to reconsider saying to someone on a weight loss journey, and a few suggestions for what to say instead. (You can also just say nothing. Saying nothing is fine too.)

“You look great, have you lost weight?”

This comment means well, it really does. However, the implication here is that thinner is better—not exactly body positive. Plus, keep in mind that people lose weight “for a multitude of reasons that often have little to do with dieting,” according to Melainie Rogers, MS, RDN and founder of Balance Eating Disorder Treatment Facility. “This includes struggling with either their physical or mental health, anxiety, depression, stress or engaging in eating disorder symptoms — [which] can all cause weight loss.” Unless you’re certain that a person’s weight loss is part of a healthy journey and that they be open to this type of compliment, refrain from implying that weight loss has made them look better than before.

“You didn’t/don’t need to lose weight, you know.”

Perhaps the good intentions behind this comment are that the person losing weight was always beautiful or worthy. However, this comment still suggests that they “should” look a certain way—thin or fat or anywhere in-between. And if they worked hard to lose weight, why would you want to undermine their work as unnecessary now?

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“How much weight did you lose?”

Talking numbers is tacky. Plus, when you lose weight, the numbers—pounds and miles and calories—can take on new, emotionally charged dimensions. Boiling down such a multi-layered experience into a few digits can be invasive and potentially belittling.

“What’s your secret?”

This question undermines the reality of all the boring, hard work that can go into someone’s weight loss efforts. Besides, there really is no secret.

“Good for you.” / “You look so much better.”

Avoid anything that insults how they used to look in order to compliment how they look now. After all, they’re still the same person—then, now, and at whatever size they may be in the future.

“How many pounds do you have to go?”

Ah, the implication that there must be more work to do! No. Keep this one to yourself.

“It’s like you’re a completely different person.”

This one is a loaded gun. Different good? Different bad? When someone loses a significant amount of weight, it takes time for them to adjust to the new reflection in the mirror. This sort of comment makes that process even more challenging.

“You are so lucky!”

Really? This phrasing either minimizes the real hard work someone has put in, or it’s insensitive to unintentional weight loss that could be due to a host of other reasons.

“Oh come on, you can have [snack/drink/temptation].”

It’s probably not your place to tell someone what they can or can’t do, and it’s dangerous to frame food as something that one “earns” for whatever reason. Best not to comment on what they are or aren’t eating.

“You look too skinny.”

Maybe you genuinely feel someone appears unhealthy or is being unsafe in some way. If that’s the case, rather than commenting on their appearance, try to ask inviting questions. For example: “How have you been lately?” or “I feel like maybe you haven’t been yourself lately. How are things?”

What can (or should) you say instead?

Ultimately, whether you want to express praise or concern, what you say depends on your relationship to the person. If you’re in doubt, there’s a good chance it’s not your place to say anything at all. If you do know beyond a reasonable doubt that the person has been working hard and would be open to hearing your comments, focus on complimenting their efforts over the results. This way, you’re complimenting the person, not the vessel.

What to say instead:

• “It’s great to see you,” or any kind of compliment that isn’t focused on appearance. Leave out the word “weight.”
• “You look happy.” If someone is proud of their weight loss, this invites them to bring it up on their own.
• “You look great.” Full stop.

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5 Tasty Ways You Should Be Using Your Pumpkin Seeds

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Carving a pumpkin means being confronted with a mass of stringy pulp and seeds, which can get easily overwhelming, especially when there are kids involved. But before you throw the entire contents of your pumpkin into the trash, you should know that the seeds can easily be used for a number of recipes.

Pumpkin seeds are a nutrient powerhouse, loaded with healthy fats, fiber, protein, along with nutrients like iron, manganese, zinc, and folate. They also happen to be one of the best natural sources for magnesium, with a one-ounce serving containing 37% of your recommended daily intake.

How to prep your pumpkin seeds 

Before we get into some of the recipes, you should also know that prepping the seeds is not as laborious as you might fear. The hardest part is removing the pulp, which can be made much simpler by adding about ½-¾ cups of salt to your combined seeds. The salt turns the pulp into a gooey mess, which helps it slide right off. Once the seeds have been cleaned, you’ll want to wash them thoroughly and let them dry.

You might also notice that recipes for pumpkin seeds involved roasting, soaking, or sprouting them. This is because pumpkin seeds are high in phytic acid, which can reduce your body’s ability to absorb certain nutrients like calcium, zinc, and iron.

You won’t get pepitas from de-shelling your pumpkin seeds

You should also know that the pepitas you buy at the supermarket and the pumpkin seeds you get from carving a pumpkin are not the same. Most people believe pepitas are simply pumpkin seeds with the shell removed. However, if you try to remove the shells of your pumpkin seeds (which I don’t recommend, since it’s a giant pain in the ass), you won’t find those tasty little green nuggets inside, but a light green, crumbly seed.

Instead, pepitas, which are only found in certain types of pumpkins, develop without a shell. But they’re still pumpkin seeds with all of the nutritional benefits, and can be used in any of these recipes.

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Massive kitchens, unique tastes: Indias ancient temple cuisine sits in a class of its own

(CNN) — Across India, temples have long served not just a spiritual need but a social one as well.

Many of the country’s temples have adopted a long-standing tradition of feeding the masses, allowing pilgrims and travelers alike to enjoy wholesome, delicious meals every day.

Any typical Indian temple, whether in a city or village, will have its own kitchen where these meals are cooked, sanctified and served, and offered free of charge or for a small token price.

But these are no ordinary meals. What sets temple cuisine apart is the taste, which is unique to each location and notoriously hard to replicate.

In fact, many established chefs have tried to offer temple cuisine in their high-end restaurants, but ultimately failed to generate the same magic.

“Temple food is very ancient and has been prepared by special cooks, known as Maharajas or Khanshamas, who belong to just one family,” explains Sandeep Pande, executive chef of New Delhi’s J W Marriot Hotel.

“Therefore, it is impossible to recreate the same taste in restaurants, even by trained chefs,” he adds.

Indeed, it’s tough to match the flavor of the puttu — made up of steamed rice flour, coconut and jaggery (cane sugar) — served at Meenakshi Temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, to name but one of the many incredible dishes on offer in the country’s places of worship.

Puttu, a traditional South Indian dish, is among the foods served at Tamil Nadu’s Meenakshi Temple.

EyesWideOpen/Getty Images

India’s temple foods are prepared following traditional cooking methods, including the use of “chulha” — wood and charcoal stoves — and clay pots.

Only local ingredients are used, while the recipes are based on Ayurvedic principles. This makes temple cuisine a live repository of traditional crops and spices.

Some temples even use water from a spring or well on the premises, while farms located nearby traditionally offer part of their harvest to the temple’s presiding deity.

The scale of these meals is also remarkable, with some temples serving thousands of visitors per day.

Temple food’s origins

The tradition is rooted in an ancient Indian mythological story in which Lord Vishnu the preserver — a god of the holy Hindu trinity — set out on a long pilgrimage.

As part of his journey he took a dip in the waters of seaside temple Rameshwaram in southern India, meditated at Badrinath Temple in the north, visited Dwarka Temple in the west and dined at the Jagannath Temple on the eastern coast.

The food he ate was cooked by his consort, Hindu goddess Lakshmi, and thus deemed divine, setting the stage for a ritual that continues to this day in which offerings known as prasad are made to a temple’s presiding deity and distributed to devotees.

Here’s a look at a few of most famous temples dishing out tasty, nutritious food to the masses.

The 56 foods of Jagannath Temple

India’s Jagannath Temple is famed for its annual Rath Yatra, or Chariot Festival.

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Located in the coastal eastern Indian state of Odisha in the city of Puri, Jagannath Temple feeds an impressive 25,000 devotees per day, but that figure can balloon to one million during festivals.

The 12th-century temple offers 56 varieties of food items. There are 40 different vegetable and dal (lentil) dishes, six rice dishes and 10 traditional sweets, like peethas, payesh, rasagola and malpua. And it’s served six times a day, cooked up in one of the largest kitchen complexes in the world.

Following the ancient Ayurvedic method, food is slow-cooked in earthen pots stacked atop each other in groups of nine. Legend has it that the temple food is cooked by the goddess Lakshmi, not the cooks, and it does not release its aroma until it is offered to the deity.

“The Jagannath Temple gets a lot of donations, mainly in the form of grains, from all over the villages around it,” says Jagabandhu Pradhan, a temple guide.

In fact, many of the farmers reserve part of their land to cultivate for the temple, he adds.

Hadubhaina, a temple priest, tells CNN that cooking starts early morning and has to be finished by 2 p.m. “as we don’t use any artificial light in the kitchen.”

“Once inside, the cook can’t come out before the meal is prepared,” he says. “Throughout, he barely talks and covers his mouth and nose.”

The prepared food is taken through a corridor to a holy space, where it is sanctified. It’s then distributed to a row of kiosks, from which devotees can buy the food for a small token amount.

The used earthenware pots are discarded and a fresh set is brought in every morning.

King-sized laddu at Tirupati Balaji Temple

Laddu, a ball-shaped sweet, is a popular offering at many of India’s Hindu temples.

Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

Tirupati Balaji Temple — or Venkateswara Swamy temple — is located in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

According to tradition, Lord Venkateswara — a form of Vishnu — appears in the temple every day, so it is the devotees’ duty to feed him.

Tirupati serves “annadanam,” a Sanskrit word that refers to the offering or sharing of food, to an estimated 80,000 pilgrims every day.

A team of over 200 cooks prepares the iconic Tirupati laddu, a circular sweet made of chickpea flour, along with 15 other dishes, including jalebi, dosa, vada and other savories.

It’s believed that Vakula Devi, the foster mother of Lord Venkateswara, supervises the preparation of the food to this day. To allow her to oversee things in the temple kitchen, a small hole has been made in the wall.

As devotees leave the main temple after offering prayers, the prasad, or offerings, are distributed. This includes a smaller version of the laddu and rice preparations of the day, which are ladled into leaf bowls.

100,000 people served daily at Punjab’s Golden Temple

A volunteer cooks chai for the thousands of pilgrims who visit the Golden Temple each day.

Lucas Vallecillos /VWPics/AP

Free meals, known as langar, are served at all Sikh shrines, or gurudwaras, not just in India but all over the world.

The tradition was implemented by the first guru of the Sikh faith, which emphasizes a concept of selfless service to the community.

The langar at Sri Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar in the north Indian state of Punjab — popularly known as the Golden Temple — feeds up to 100,000 people daily.

Visitors of any faith, rich or poor, can receive the simple hot meals that are handed out almost completely by volunteers.

There are two communal kitchens and two dining halls, with a combined seating capacity of 5,000 people. The food is simple and wholesome, comprising roti (wholewheat flat bread), dal (lentils), vegetables and kheer (milk and rice pudding).

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How to Eat Healthier Without Tracking Calories

Photo: PR Image Factory (Shutterstock)

Eating healthier is a worthy goal in its own right, rather than just a means to an end for weight loss. But if you’ve ever tried to change your eating habits, you likely know the mess of misinformation that is online diet culture.

There seems to be only a few things that everybody agrees on when it comes to nutrition, so no matter your health goals, here are science-backed tips for healthy eating that don’t require you to count calories.

Get in some lean protein 

I like to think of protein as the jock of the three macronutrients (fats, carbs, and protein). It’s the building block of your muscles, and foods high in protein tend to be the most filling. Think meat, fish, poultry, eggs, legumes (like black beans and chickpeas), and soy products (like tofu or tempeh). Our protein guide takes you through how much you need depending on your health goals, from losing weight, to building muscle, to growing stronger nails and hair.

Focus on your fiber

Fiber improves satiety and, pretty famously, normalizes bowel movements. If you struggle with putting down a bag of chips, swapping out less nutritious snack foods for high fiber options will help you naturally feel full. Examples include whole grains, beans, and most fruits and vegetables. Speaking of…

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Eat more vegetables

This is another one of those rare points of agreement in nutrition. Vegetables are major sources for important nutrients and vitamins to help your entire body function. It’s that simple, really. Toss yourself a salad and start blissfully laughing. Consider expanding your palate with more types of vegetables, especially going by season.

Go for good fats

The reputation of fat in your diet has come a long way—but that doesn’t make it any less confusing. We’ve broken down different kinds of fats and their benefits. To start incorporating healthy fats into your diet, seek out foods like avocados, nuts, eggs, and fatty fish like salmon.

Cut back on sugar

We’ve covered practical and effective tips to gradually cut sugar out of your diet, and the mix of opinions on how your body processes sugar is headache-inducing (like a so-called sugar crash). But what you can do is focus your sugar sources on apples, berries, and other fruits that at least come with fiber and vitamins to help all your systems run in tip-top shape.

You don’t have to sacrifice taste 

Despite decades of harmful rhetoric—partly from old-timey children’s television—healthy food really does taste good. If you’re skeptical, try out some of the best ways to make healthy food taste better. Plus, with fall here, there’s no better time to elevate your veggie game by roasting them to delicious perfection. You don’t need to become a master chef, either—there are plenty of cheap and lazy ways to eat healthy.

Get better sleep

The most underrated healthy eating tips has nothing to do with food. Studies show that getting less than seven hours of sleep on a regular basis can lead to difficult-to-control hunger and cravings. Here’s how to get the most of out your sleep.

Start with your mindset

Healthy eating should be about treating yourself (#selfcare), not punishing yourself. To practice mindfulness, consider reading up on intuitive eating. Additionally, there are concrete tips to make healthy eating easier on yourself, like reorganizing your refrigerator around ready-to-grab healthy options. Ensuring you always have healthy options on hand can help less-than-perfect decisions when hunger strikes.

At the same time, remember to practice patience with yourself. No one diet is perfect, and neither is any one person.

 

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Im Comedian Eric Wareheim and This Is How I Eat

If your concept of Eric Wareheim was formed purely through viewings of Awesome Show and Tom Goes to the Mayor, you might think the man hates food, or wants you to hate food, but that could not be further from the truth. Eric Wareheim loves food, respects food, and cherishes food, and he wants you to do the same. His new (and first) cookbook Foodheim: A Culinary Adventure is packed with aspirational, but still accessible, recipes, party-hosting tips, and pure, gleeful enthusiasm. Food is not a joke to Wareheim, but it is fun, and I recently had the good fortune of talking to him about snack plates, airport dining, and his favorite beverage to sip with shrimp.

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What do you usually eat for breakfast?

I do a coffee, and I drink La Colombe coffee, which is what I grew up with in Philadelphia when it was just one store, one shop in Rittenhouse Square Park. It’s the same blend. I just love it. I don’t really have breakfast. I just do an early lunch. Like today, and many days, I’m doing these light stir fries. And when I say “light” I mean I don’t usually use meat. I just do whatever veggies I have in the fridge and I do a little fried tofu and I make this homemade, really lemony stir fry sauce, and I use sushi rice. I make it all from scratch.

And then do you do a more leisurely dinner?

It definitely depends on the day. I mean, during [the height of] the pandemic, I was making huge, elaborate dinners because there’s nothing to do. I was doing like, full boeuf bourguignon, braised meats, ribs—stuff that took hours and hours. I just loved the house smelling like food. I would wake up and think about what wines I would pair with that dish, you know? Like, “Ooh, I’m gonna make a cheese plate. I’m going to pop open a beautiful premier cru chablis with that, then I’m going to move to red wine,” you know? That was what got me through the whole thing. But I have a couple of wine clubs and we all get together and we cook for each other. So that happens once a week or twice a week.

The Personal Pep Pep from Foodheim

Photo: Julia Stotz

I read that you are an expert at preparing snack plates. Could describe your perfect snack plate? 

Yeah, I just did a three-week vacation in Spain and Italy and it’s basically always the same things: It’s like really fresh, beautiful, cured meat like a prosciutto or Serrano or Jamón Ibérico. And I always do contrasting cheese: one beautiful triple cream brie, something like nice and gooey; and then something more firm, like a French Comté. And always a fresh baguette. Warm it up in the oven a little bit and serve it with a little fruit—either a little jam or, if it’s summer, some fresh fruit. My other all-time go-to is a really nice French butter with a beautiful Calabrian anchovy.

You like a lot of the tinned fish, right?

Yes. I use a lot in my cooking and there are so many different levels of quality. If you’re going to eat it just plain, you’ve got to get a really good one.

I did notice a running theme throughout the cookbook is an emphasis on really good ingredients, which I love, especially in regards to meat. But I wanted to ask you: Are there any—I hesitate to use the phrase “guilty pleasure,” but…

Yeah, of course. In my SmashHeim recipe, it calls for American cheese and there’s really no substitute for that. It just melts perfectly. Although my friend in Sonoma is developing a cheddar cheese that kind of melts like that. But I love tacos in Los Angeles. That meat is definitely not grass-fed organic beef or pork. But if you pound enough spices or simmer for enough hours, it’ll get to a point where it’s delicious.

Try to find the good stuff if you can afford it and barely cook it, and that’s life.

I just put it in my book because not a lot of people know that there’s a difference between the stuff you get at your grocery store—and it’s not that much more expensive if you just search it out a little bit. It was just a revolution for me, in wine and food. Being like, “Oh! I don’t even have to season this piece of steak. It’s perfect. I don’t have to put any sauce on it.” That’s how I think you should be eating, with produce, too. Try to find the good stuff if you can afford it and barely cook it, and that’s life.

Another thing I absolutely love from the book is this concept of an “acid head.” Could you briefly describe that philosophy?

Yeah. I mean, in regards to my my stir-fry sauce—you get a lot of stir fries and they’re just kind of overly sweet, and there’s a little acid in the soy sauce, but I add lemon and Shaoxing vinegar to my teriyaki and stir fry sauce, and it brightens it up. Sometimes you want that dank, sweet molasses, but other times I just want this bright freshness. Like, I had broccoli today. I wanted to taste the broccoli, I didn’t want to coat it with sweetness. But acid, it’s like salt. It sort of brings out the flavors. Same with wine. There’s nothing worse than a wine with no acidity. At my wine company—Las Jaras—that’s the number one thing. We want a strong acid finish that gives you that thirst quenching [puckering sound], that makes you want to keep drinking and eating. It’s all part the chemical reaction that happens to your body that I love.

Do you ever route your tours based on cities that you want to eat in?

Oh, my god. Yeah, a lot of the times. When we shot season two of Master of None, we were like “We want to shoot in Italy.” Just because we love it. Aziz and I went traveling there on vacation many, many times before we shot there. And we want to shoot season four in Japan. I mean, it’s just an idea, but we love the food so much. And when Tim and I tour, you know, you have to go to large cities because the most people are there. But I got to hit Atlanta for the fried chicken. I have to go to Texas to get Franklin’s barbecue. So those are like—it’s a must.

I know Tampa isn’t a big food city by a lot of people’s standards, but I did appreciate your shoutout of Bern’s Steak House.

Oh my god. Have you been there?

I have been there. I used to live in that area. What did you order there, and did you do the dessert room?

I totally did. Do you know about the secret wine there?

I do.

Yeah. So that’s why we go, I go like once a year because it’s considered one of the best cellars in the world, and we only go when there’s a certain sommelier there that can help us. It’s a whole fucking thing. The food is like your classic steakhouse. The Chicken Bern is our favorite—when we go there, we eat there for about eight hours because there’s so much wine. So we have a whole dinner, and then we start again. We order two rounds of Chicken Bern, and we go to the dessert room, and we order some Champagne and some beautiful sauternes or something or some dessert wine. And then we do a tour of the cellars, which is like, unbelievable. We’re like kids in candy shops. It’s amazing.

Are any hidden culinary gems in any of the airports you’ve been to?

I mean, does Barcelona count? Are you talking about American? 

Oh, anywhere!

Yeah, it’s so interesting. We just went to Spain and in Barcelona—all we want is pan con tomate—like tomato bread and Jamón Ibérico. And there’s a place in the Barcelona airport, in the international terminal that has the best tomato bread and the best ham I had in the whole country. I hate to say that, but like it was on, you know, they just do it. And they have amazing coffees everywhere. I love, love, love Spanish airports. They really care about the food there. But also I’m a big fan of coming back in LAX and I go—what’s the burger place now that’s really good?—Shake Shack! They do a mushroom burger. I couldn’t do a regular burger after a long flight but a nice mushroom burger, it’s kind of a nice welcome back to L.A., in my opinion.

I know you were a vegetarian for a while, in the 90s, when they didn’t have all these new tech meats. Have you tried any of the tech meats? 

Yeah, I was. I did a couple events with Impossible Burger because I was truly blown away by it. I would make burgers with it and even the Beyond Meat—I’m kind of shocked by how good it is if you cook it right. It’s all about getting that real nice sear, getting that caramelization. So, you trick yourself. But, you know, if you put enough good ingredients on it, I’m pretty impressed. I’m very happy. My sister’s vegetarian and my partner at Las Jaras is pescatarian, so he cooks Beyond sausages on his pizzas, and it’s really good.

The dairy-free stuff has come a long way, too.

Oh my god. Yeah. I have vegan ice cream sandwiches in my freezer. I’m into it.

Are there any retro dishes that you wish would make a comeback?

Yeah. I’m really into beef Wellington, and I when I was shooting Master of None season three, we were in England, so all I wanted to do is get a Sunday roast, which is like Yorkshire pudding, beef Wellington. I love prime rib places like Lawry’s and that kind of stuff. I wish someone would make a steakhouse in downtown L.A. that was old school. Like really old. Duck a l’orange—all that stuff is kind of my favorite food. There’s a couple of cool steakhouses and they do steaks and wedge salads and stuff, but there are some dishes, like old French dishes that I think would be fucking awesome.

Getting that ice-cold horseradish vodka just makes you feel really good.

I think that’s what we’re lacking here in Portland, too, is that kind of old school sensibility. Do you have a favorite Portland restaurant?

If I had to pick, it would be Kachka. That place is—I couldn’t believe it. My mom’s German and we had a lot of breads with pickled herring and dumplings, that sort of was my upbringing. So it just felt so soulful to be there. Plus getting that ice-cold horseradish vodka just makes you feel really good.

One dish I really appreciated in the book was the sexy scraps pasta, which I think is such a smart way to teach people to cook. Is that how you cook at home—that sort of continuous using of ingredients as they’re available?

I’m so glad you said that. I kind of fought to put that in, because we didn’t shoot it. But I was like, “This is such an easy way to teach people how to make pastas out of anything.” We’ll get a farmer’s market box or something and we’ll have some squash left over. Some of these babies are hard to use, but like you sauté it up and put enough garlic and maybe an anchovy or some capers—and that’s how Italians eat. They eat very simply. It’s not these big tomato sauces all the time. It’s very light. So I just wanted to put an idea of, like, try different noodles, try different combinations, just throw it in there and have fun.

Photo: Julia Stotz

Are there any other dishes you make that are kind of in that genre? 

Yeah, if I go to a steakhouse, and I have pieces of steak, I do like egg-fried rice. I always keep some old rice in the fridge sealed up really nice. Or steak and eggs. I’ll just make a soft scramble and toss the meat back in with some avocado and some tomatoes. It’s amazing to me.

How do you make your soft scramble?

I just I whip up a couple eggs, sometimes I’ll pour just a touch a half & half in it to kind of thicken it up, and then over medium heat. Once I fry up the meat and a little bit of the aromatics—a little garlic or shallots or whatever—I’ll just slowly pour the eggs into my pan and then, with my spatula, just kind of keep it constantly moving. Then you turn off the heat within 30 seconds and it just kind of forms this beautiful thing, maybe a little like shredded cheddar if you have it.

Pivoting kind of wildly from eggs: I wanted to talk about shrimp cocktail because it’s one of my favorites. Can you describe your perfect shrimp cocktail experience?

That was my first food that I fell in love with as a kid. I went to Ocean City, Maryland lot. They had really good shrimp, and I just remember adding extra horseradish to my my sauce. I like it really spicy and, of course, I like the shrimp really flavorful. In my recipe, you add some spices just to kind of give the broth a little boom. I like it like steakhouse style. I love it served in a martini glass with them hanging off and a little parsley and a lemon. It’s just this classic cold, beautiful thing.

What do you usually drink with it?

I mean, definitely start with a gin martini, dry, with an olive, for sure.

What kind of gin do you like?

I love Raj, Fords, and St.George—those are my three right now. Also, that Monkey 47 is really good, too.

In the pizza chapter of the book, you say that whenever you go to a new pizza place, start with the margarita pie, because that’s the benchmark. Do you have any other benchmark dishes like that?

Oh, that’s a good question. Definitely at sushi restaurants, I start with the basics like a beautiful piece of chūtoro, like medium fatty tuna just to test out the very basics before you go into some wilder rolls or something. I always love to get the really simple things—same with taco places. I just start with the basics—a carne asada taco, cochinita pibil taco, and then then you start moving out, because I feel like you could tell the craft of a place by the simplest thing. Just like when you go in a restaurant and you try the bread, you get the Parker house rolls and you’re like “Oh my god.” And you go to a restaurant with shit bread, you know they don’t care. There’s no love in that food. I always think about that. The basics are very important to me.

Yeah, I’m that way with glazed donuts.

Yes. I love simple stuff, you know, it’s really the way to go.

Do you have any tips for people with limited income on how to make food feel special on a budget?

I tried to think about that a lot in this book because this book is for me 10 years ago, before I started cooking a lot. I wanted all this stuff. Take the chicken parmesan, for example. That is a very inexpensive dish. You get like two chicken breasts. That costs under five dollars. You make your own tomato sauce. That also costs under five dollars, and then a little mozzarella cheese, which is under five dollars. Then you just follow my recipe, which is perfect. And you’ll have that feeling that I had, which is: “Holy shit, I can make food better than my Italian restaurant that I go to and spend twenty five dollars on chicken parm.” To me, that’s big part of the book. I can’t even go to a steak house because I cook better steaks. I know how to do it now. I think things like the chicken parm, and even the salad stuff. I wanted to put a couple of salads that are very easy because once you learn how to make a good vinaigrette? It feels elevated and it’s very cheap.

This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.

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