The Spaghetti Turd Twister is pretty cool, but I get those results anyway.
Do you think I should see a doctor?
Posted on 05/24/2005 7:41:04 AM PDT by dead
KAOHSIUNG - Displaying fancy toilet seats studded with flowers and shells, colourful bathtubs, faucets, mirrors and shower curtains, the well-lit window in this southern Taiwan city looks like a showroom for a trendy bathroom brand. But this is a restaurant.
It's unusual theme is proving a draw for customers eager to eat food off plates and bowls shaped like western loo seats as well as Japanese "squat toilets".
Marton Theme Restaurant, named after the Chinese word "Matong" for toilet, has become a hit in Taiwan's second largest city since its opening in May 2004.
Though bathroom decor seems a bizarre way to whet the appetites of diners, the idea has been so successful that owner, Eric Wang opened a second and bigger branch just seven months later.
"We not only sell food but also laughter. The food is just as good as any restaurant but we offer additional fun," says 26-year-old Wang, who gave up a career in banking to launch the business.
"Most customers think the more disgusting and exaggerated (the restaurant is), the funnier the dining experience is," he says.
The top orders are curry hot pot; curry chicken rice and chocolate ice cream because, well, "they look most like the real thing", Wang says.
The price ranges from 150 to 250 Taiwan dollars ($5 - 8 dollars) for a set menu, which includes soup and ice cream.
Customers, however, flock to Marton Restaurant mainly for its quirky dining wares and interior decor.
"This is such a funny and strange restaurant," says patron Chen Bi-fang, while sitting atop a colourful toilet seat — the standard chair at the restaurant.
She sits by a table converted from a bathtub with a glass cover while looking at a wall decorated with neon-lit faucets and urinals turned into lamps.
Chen first came to the restaurant after seeing it featured on television and has brought nine co-workers along for lunch on her second visit.
"I think this is the most special restaurant I've ever been to. The menu also looks good and I'd like to try more next time," says newcomer Cheng Hung-chi, who found out about the restaurant over the Internet and took her mother and brother with her. They are exactly the kind of customers owner Wang are counting on — drawn by novelty and who return with friends in a city crowded by a wide variety of restaurants.
"Our restaurant is the first and only of its kind in Kaohsiung and that gives us an advantage in the saturated market here. Our major challenge is to lure customers back after the initial fun," he says.
Other gimmicky restaurants in Taiwan using themes such as a prison, zombies and even China's Mao Zedong achieved quick success but folded within a few years after the novelty wore off.
To make sure his investment wouldn't go down the pan, Wang first tested the water for the toilet food gimmick by peddling ice cream in toilet-shaped cones in street booths four months before opening his restaurant. It was an instant hit as he sold up to 1,000 ice-cream cones daily for 30 dollars apiece, which is 5 to 10 dollars higher than a regular one.
His idea came from a popular Japanese comic featuring a robot doll fond of eating excrement in ice cream cones.
"The success with 'toilet ice cream' was a leap of faith for me to quit the stable but boring banking job and start my business despite strong objections from my family," he says.
The young entrepreneur is planning to expand his business to other cities on the island though franchising after adding more items to the menu.
"After the curiosity fades, we have to hold on to customers with upgraded food and services," Wang says.
AFP
You are one nutty guy - that has clearly come out of his shell.
Don't you at least like the Purple Teddy or the Purple Planetary?
But you did, didn't you, cy? ;-)
I understand that their version of a "happy meal" is served in a diaper.
You bowled me over with that; you plunged to the depths of punnery to float that one.
I just did and it's gross *LOL*
The Spaghetti Turd Twister is pretty cool, but I get those results anyway.
Do you think I should see a doctor?
Yes, Ski. You need to see your doctor for your weekly check-up-from-the-neck-up.
url?
I have to come clean: I stool my sense of potty humor. It was in all the papers.
Heh heh heh.
Hah! Figures.
Looks like no stool pigeons have turned us in to the Mods. Either that, or they have gotten a bit lax. Some might consider this a waste of time, but at least we are well manured about it. Okay, I have to scat.
They'll have to keep a lid on this one, lest it become an overflowing success, flush with the residue of wasted time. Or, it could become a dump!
I'm afraid I've joined this thread toi-let in the pro-cess. I'm septic-al that I've anythi to contribute, so I'll just put a lid on it and go back to my stool.
Feeling flush with success?
Or did you puns just crap out?
Don't be peeved. You've no right to be cheeky as this is a public site, anyone can go here. I will now give you some advice for better results:
Do not worry about standing watch for pings related to bathroom humor. If you do, if your real name happens to be Thomas, you could unfortunately develop a reputation as a pee ping Tom and your romantic prospects would go down the Crapper.
The Better Way is to NOT rely on pings but to just be quiet and go about your business, keep a stiff upper zip and learn to listen for the Call.
...of Nature.
They are evidently flush with success.
I just can't handle anyone making a faucet over me. But I'm not in a lather over it.
Indeed, Lovely Miss, yes I am glad to see you and I'm for equal pee for equal work and all that but THIS IS THE MEN'S ROOM!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.