A couple days ago, my colleague John Bowman brought to my attention a new hot-dog vending machine in operation here in Toronto. I went looking for it today with the hopes of procuring a video for today’s post, but alas, no luck. They do exist, though.

The machines are made by Toronto-based Maven’s Kosher Foods, which makes a variety of kosher foods. The particular sighting John mentioned was at a recent Microsoft conference at the Toronto Convention Center (thanks to Accordion Guy for pointing it out). I trotted over to the center today but couldn’t find any trace of the machines. With a little further research, I learned that Maven’s tends to rent them out only for special events. I’m heading to SecTor, Canada’s version of DefCon - the black-hat hacker convention - at the Convention Center next week, so I’m still hoping to catch one in action.

Anyhow, I do have a video of the machine in action, courtesy of Maven’s:

The machine dispenses three different kinds of kosher dogs - all-beef, spicy Italian and chicken - for $5 each, and it can dispense a total of 300 hot dogs before it needs refilling.

We’ve covered this ground here before - such as the pizza vending machines being rolled out in the U.S. and Italy. If you provide these robotic machines with the proper, fresh ingredients, there’s no reason why they can’t make fast food that’s as good - or better - than unskilled and teenage workers.

And since we’re on the topic of vending machines, and we do tend to talk about sex here, let’s not forget the machines in Japan that dispense used panties.

Ick. Just ick.