Every year on the second weekend in August, the Oppikoppi festival rules the tiny town of Northam in South Africa. The festival features hundreds of musicians in genres ranging from rock to jazz to dubstep. This year, for the first time ever, it also featured unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, that delivered cold beers to concertgoers via a parachute and plastic cup. This beer-delivery robot isn't alone in the drone service industry. UAVs have been tested as mechanisms to convey everything from dry cleaning to medicine. Though it's often criticized for its military use of drones, the United States lags behind other countries in commercial and civilian drone use; the Federal Aviation Administration isn't set to deal with non-military drones until at least 2015. People who use drones now must do so only for recreational purposes: Though some Americans skirt the law, U.S. civilians are technically not allowed use drones for "compensation or hire." (But even Rand Paul, the infamously anti-drone U.S. Senator, tweeted his support for Oppikkopi's beer drone.)

Meanwhile, less developed countries like the Dominican Republic are already hammering out the regulations necessary for civilian drone flight. In the United States and elsewhere, here are some of the fun things civilian drones have delivered so far: Far friendlier than its bomb-dropping cousins, Oppikoppi's drone "Manna" delivered free beer to concertgoers who called for it with a smartphone app. The original delivery drone, Star Simpson's Tacocopter started as a proof of concept. A web page advertising taco delivery by drone gained publicity and was eventually dismissed as a "hoax," but Simpson insists she'll get the service up and running once the United States makes it legal. Inspired by Star Simpson's Tacocopter, the minds behind California's Darwin Aerospace created a working "Burrito Bomber" and filmed it delivering its tasty payload. The company's website now documents the making of the delivery drone and encourages industrious viewers to build their own bombers.

In June, a Domino's franchise outside London delivered two large, piping-hot pepperoni pizzas via drone. According to NBC news, Domino's is apparently "serious" about delivering pies with drones in the future, but the company must first jump regulatory hurdles to ensure the delivery is civilian-safe. In July, Harout Vartanian, owner of the Philadelphia-based Manayunk Cleaners, tried out a new marketing gimmick: sending his customers' their dry cleaning using a drone. The venture brought the establishment much-needed attention, and Vartanian says he eventually plans to make all his deliveries drone-borne. China's Incake bakery debuted drones that delivered cakes to the bakery's Shanghai customers earlier this year, but the bakery had to suspend the airborne service after Chinese police said the drones were a threat to public safety.Sushi has a high-tech reputation to maintain; the chain pioneered the practice of putting sushi on in-house conveyer belts, letting patrons pick out plates of what they liked best.

Now the franchise is experimenting again: At YO! Sushi's London flagship, small quadcopters deliver rice bun "sushi burgers" to hungry diners.food delivery sw5 london Not all drone delivery schemes are frivolous or for foodies; sushi conveyor belt south africaPaola Santana and her co-founders at the Matternet plan on using drones to deliver medicine and supplies to infrastructure-poor parts of the world.sushi online bestellen hamburg Drones are already hard at work in some parts of the U.S. spraying crops with pesticides. sushi online bestellen hamburgWhile such drone use is innovative in America, it's old news in Japan, where drones seed and spray farms on steep hillsides that are difficult to reach by tractor.

Drone Beer Civilian Drones Smarter Ideas Civilian Drone Beer DroneWelcome to the first lesson of Japanese Cooking 101! Throughout this course I hope to teach you about the foundations of traditional Japanese cooking or washoku (和食), as well as how to cook some Japanese dishes. So let's get started! Dashi or stock (often called dashi stock, which is kind of redundant) is the foundation of all savory washoku. It's not just used in soups; it's used in everything, from sauces, dressings, as a liquid when stewing vegetables, and more. Without dashi, your Japanese dishes simply aren't right. If anything, dashi is more critical to Japanese cooking than meat, vegetable and fish stocks are to French cooking. So what is dashi? Basically it is a liquid that is packed with umami, or glutamates. Umami is an essential part of any savory cuisine, but particularly so in Japanese cooking. It's not at all surprising that it was a Japanese scientist who invented the purest chemical form of umami, monosodium glutamate (MSG).

While using MSG or a instant dashi powder or granules is very handy, and although the quality of dashi powders have have improved in recent years, dashi made from time-tested, natural ingredients is more rounded and better tasting. The difference between dashi made from instant powder and one made from scratch is like the difference between a bouillon you make with a stock cube and one you make by simmering bones and vegetables for hours. Luckily for us, the Japanese of yore came up with ways to make whipping up a batch of dashi very easy. Various dried ingredients, mostly from the sea, which can be kept without refrigeration, are used to make dashi quite easily - so much easier than making a meat stock. (I mean, dealing with those icky greasy bones after making chicken or beef stock is not nice.) Dashi is made from one or two of these ingredients: kombu seaweed is a slightly leathery seaweed. It may come in wide sheets, or long ropey strands. kombu is the most widely used dashi ingredient, and has the most neutral flavor of them all.

If you are a vegan, a pure kombu dashi is an all-purpose, neutral tasting dashi. Good kombu is covered on the surface with a fine white powdery substance. Do not wash this off - it's not caked on salt or dust! It's full of that umami we want to extract. (Note: Many Japanese cookbooks instruct you to wipe the dirt off the surface of kombu with a tightly wrung out kitchen towel. The truth is, this really isn't necessary in most cases these days, since the kombu we get has already been cleaned very well. If you happen to get a batch with some gritty stuff on the surface you'll need to wipe it off, but make sure you're not getting rid of that powdery white stuff in the meantime. If a tiny bit of grit does make it into your dashi you can always strain it off later.) Also called kezuribushi or okaka. Katsuobushi is a bonito fish (katsuo) that has been dried and fermenented to develop a lot of umami. The fish shrinks down and hardens until it's like a block of wood. This is then grated or shaved into thin flakes, rather like wood shavings.

The shavings are used in cooking. Good, fresh pre-shaved katsuobushi is fluffy and yellowish-beige in color with a hint of blush pink. Katsuobushi is the second most common dashi ingredient after kombu. Most of the dashi used around the country in restaurants uses a combination of kombu and katsuobushi. Katsuobushi is usually available in flaked form, although you can get a whole katsuobushi and a special box grater and grate your own. While freshly shaved or grated katsuobushi is very flavorful, it's a pain in the ass to grate manually, so most people, including professional cooks, use the pre-shaved stuff. (I've seen some electric katsuobushi-shavers sold in Japan, but they're pretty expensive.) We won't be using these ingredients for this lesson, but these items are used in dashi too. Simply put, ichiban dashi or first dashi is the dashi you make from fresh (as in previously unused) ingredients kombu and katsuobushi. Niban dashi or second dashi is dashi made from the kombu, katsuobushi and so on that has previously been used for making ichiban dashi.

Ichiban dashi is used for things like soups, or when you want the maximum amount of umami possible. Niban dashi is used for things like stewed dishes, when other ingredients like meat and vegetables will add more umami to the dish so a subtler dashi is adequate. Niban dashi is really a way of being frugal with your dashi ingredients. In this lesson we will be making a standard ichiban (first) kombu and katsuobushi dashi, but I'll also show you how kombu-only dashi is made. Long time readers of the site may know that I've given you a couple of different ways of making dashi in the past. They all work well, but here I'll walk you through the method that I think makes the best tasting dashi. We will making 1 litre, or about 4 U.S. cups of dashi. For this you will need: The ratio of water to ingredients: Allow for a minimum of 10 grams of kombu, and 10 to 15 grams of katsuobushi, per 1000 ml(1l) or 4 U.S. sized cups of water. If you're making a kombu-only dashi, you'll want to use at least 15 grams.

If you don't have a fairly precise scale, 10 grams of kombu is about a 4 inch square piece - which is the advice I've given you previously, and 19-15 grams of katsuobushi is a good handful. Here I used 15 grams of each. If you don't get the amounts precise don't worry; since these are all-natural ingredients, you can't really use too much of it. Here's 15 grams of kombu. - about 1 1/2 4-inch / 10 cm squares. And here's 15 grams of katuobushi - a generous handful: Set aside the katsuobushi. Put the kombu and water in a pan and leave it to soak for at least 30 minutes. You can leave it in the water for up to a day in the refrigerator, if you want to do the soaking step in advance. If you want to track how the dashi progresses, take a small sip of the liquid after the kombu has been soaking in it for a while. You should taste just a hint of the sea already. The surface of the kombu will have turned a bit slippery. Put the pan on the hob and turn up the heat. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat.

If you are making a kombu-only dashi, keep the pan on a barely-there low simmer for 30 minutes. Check the water level and add a bit more if it seems to be evaporating too fast. IF you are making a kombu-katsuobushi combination dashi, simmer the kombu for 10 minutes, then turn off the heat. Again, if you want to track the progress of the dashi, taste it at the 5, 10 and (if you're going for kombu-only dashi) the 30 minute stages. You'll notice that the dashi is getting gradually stronger in flavor, tasting like the sea. You should notice the umami even at the 5 minute mark. Kombu-only dashi barely has any color. To make a kombu-katsuobushi combo dashi: After 10 minutes of simmering, add the katsuobushi, and turn the heat off. Let the pan sit for a few minutes (about 10 minutes) until the katsuobushi sinks to the bottom of the pan. Strain off the liquid, using a fine-mesh sieve. Don't throw away the used kombu and katsuobushi! We'll be using that in a later lesson, so put it in a plastic bag and store it in the freezer.

The dashi will have a pale golden color. Give it a taste - you'll notice the katuobushi, but it won't be unpleasantly 'fishy'; it will be like a very light bouillon without the salt. At this point the dashi can be used right away, or stored well covered for a few day in the refrigerator. You can also freeze it - putting it in ice cube trays is a handy way of doing this. _This pale golden liquid is the foundation for your savory Japanese dishes. Master the art of dashi making and you're well on your way to becoming a Japanese Iron Chef! Tomorrow I'll show you how to turn this dashi into two kinds of soup: clear soup called osumashi or osuimono, and misoshiru or miso soup. While dashi made from natural ingredients tastes the best, it may be difficult of not impossible to get the raw ingredients like kombu seaweed and katsuobushi in some parts of the world. In that case using instant dashi stock granules is fine, and certainly better than using straight MSG or nothing at all.

And to be brutal, most Japanese restaurants around the world do not make dashi from scratch; they use the granules, (Once you know the taste of 'real' dashi, you'll soon be able to tell when a restaurant isn't using it.) A complaint I hear sometimes about dashi made from dashi granules is that it is 'fishy'. While they do have some fish flavor (and the granules themselves, especially certain brands, can smell rather fishy) since they are made from katuobushi extract and such, I suspect that one problem is that people are using far too much of it. You only need to use about 1 teaspoon per 4 cups (1 liter) of water, or 1/4 teaspoon per cup. Dashi, whether made from granules or from scratch, is not meant to be used on its own; it is meant to be a flavor enhancer, not the entire flavor. You add other ingredients like salt, soy sauce, sake and so on to the dashi to "complete" the flavors. So trying to make add enough dashi granules to water or other liquid to make it 'strong' will not turn out well at all.