User:Vonlandsberg/sandbox/Gorilla Sandwich

Gorilla Sandwich is a trademark for the patented design of a cucumber sandwich, a carved out, stuffed cucumber where the actual cucumber is redesigned into a closed off container. It was created by Alex Stenzel in 2004 and first sold as a raw food at all prominent health food stores and  Whole Foods in Los Angeles. It became popular as a hip salad on the go and the to go choice for raw food aficionados, diabetics, vegans, vegetarians and anybody who wanted to eat a gluten-free diet. The Gorilla Sandwich is also a favorite with many moms because it is an exciting, fun and healthy snack for kids to take to school.

The Gorilla Sandwich is made from two cucumbers halves; one large 3/4 half container and one small 1/4 half lid. Both halves are carved out. The container is filled with ingredients and the lid is used to close it off similar like a cork plugs into a wine bottle. The lid can also be garnished e.g. with a cherry tomato. The ingredients are stuffed in layers into the container. The original Gorilla Sandwich is stuffed with walnut, avocado, black olives, black kale, mustard greens and dulse.

The Gorilla Sandwich which is protected by a design patent received attention from patent experts for it's uniqueness and novelty. It is possible the only known patent issued by the USPO for the redesign of a non processed whole vegetable or fruit.

History
Artist, designer, inventor, philosopher and athlete Alex Stenzel  who also had a world ranking in three different sports: tennis(1982 No.33  ITF Junior World Ranking), mountain-bike(1989 No.33 Grundig Mountain-Bike Challenge and triathlon(1986 Ironman World Championship,Hawaii) had kept an eye on performance enhancing healthy foods, supplements and  superfoods  adapted a raw food diet into his life style.

In a raw food cookbook he had read about a recipe for a raw salad which had as its main ingredients cucumbers and kale. Stenzel liked it. It tasted fresh, it was light and made him feel good. It was the perfect snack for in between creative thinking and athletic activities. It was filling but light enough to not slow him down. Stenzel who is a firm believer in having lots of greens in once diet also had learned that gorillas eat lots of greens and are very strong and can bench press up to six times their own body weight 1800 pounds. "Who wouldn’t want to be as strong as a gorilla?!" When a friend called to go surfing Stenzel wanted to take his freshly made salad with him. It was then when he had a creative spark and thought that instead of cutting the cucumber into the salad to carve out the cucumber and put the salad inside. He used the smaller half of the cucumber as a lid, turned it around and plugged it back into the larger cucumber container, fastened it with a sandwich pick, garnished it with an olive and wrapped it up. He named it Gorilla Sandwich. Within a few month it sold at all major health food stores and Whole Food Markets in Los Angeles and took the raw food community by storm.

The word about the The Gorilla Sandwich spread quickly with in the vegan, vegetarian and raw food communities and the media praised it as one of the coolest and most original ideas in health food, the perfect snack, extremely portable, limitless possibilities for fillings, it's travel friendliness and it's yumminess. It has been named everything from a little gem to the perfect lunch.

As the health food community continued to be fascinated about the Gorilla Sandwich and health food stores wanted to put it on their menu the Gorilla Sandwich became available under a licensing agreement to be sold over the counter as a freshly made sandwich and consumers can purchase an instructional video along with utensils through the company's website.

Diet
Traditionally, sandwiches and burgers alike are defined by one thing: the bread that holds it all together. Gorilla Sandwiches are breadless and when used as a container for a sandwich cuts out all gluten, yeast and carbs. By carving out the cucumber the water content is reduced this makes it possible to enjoy cucumbers with foods such as hummus that otherwise would taste to plain in combination with cucumbers. But no matter what the filling is cucumbers are one of the most alkaline foods. Therefore it is also a healthy choice for anybody  who wants to be more ph balanced.

Trendy diets often call for processed foods and yield only temporary results when good eating habits are not adapted into the life style. The Gorilla Sandwich is made from one wholesome cucumber and it's a "real food". Finding unprocessed healthy snacks can be particularly challenging. But for optimal efficiency and energy, our bodies need “pit stops,” just like a race car. Think carbs for ‘gas,’ protein for ‘air in the tires’ and fats for ‘oil.’ The original Gorilla Sandwich is filled with walnuts, avocado, black olives, kale, mustard greens and dulse sea vegetables which provides for an unprocessed wholesome balanced snack.

Jenny Ross says, " if your salad is boring or maybe its just your bowl stuff your salad in a cucumber and make a Gorilla Sandwich." It's fun for travels, easy enough to make, it can be prepared in advance and there is nearly unlimited ways to vary the ingredients. "King Kong says Yum to this one,"says nutrition expert Ashley Koff.

Healthy Snacks For Kids
Kids can be particular fuzzy when it comes to eating their vegetables and salads but Gorilla Sandwiches make for appealing snacks. Kids like them because they are fun and novel. Parents can vary the fillings and prepare a whole batch that lasts for a week. And since they are so portable kids can take them to school for their lunch or on a picnic. "Kids will 'go ape' over these little beauties."

Design Patent


The cucumber sandwich patent which is the basis for the Gorilla Sandwich has astonished patent experts and stirred rumors on many blogs around the internet. Although the patent office has an entire category devoted to “Food or Edible Material: Processes, Compositions, and Products,” which covers a staggering number of enzymes, additives, processes, formulations, and reformulations that transform our food that a sandwich such as the cucumber sandwich can be patented seems questionable. In order to secure a patent, inventions are expected to meet standards for novelty, usefulness, and “non-obviousness.” Sandwich patents range from the general to the highly specific. US patent #D527,165 S, for an evocative cucumber sandwich, that was granted to Stenzel is an example of the latter.

The cucumber sandwich has been compared with Smucker’s patented round peanut butter and jelly sandwich with no crust and Mc Donalds patent application a "Method and Apparatus for Making a Sandwich". But there is a significant difference between the cucumber sandwich and Smucker's peanut butter and jelly sandwich the cucumber sandwich is unprocessed and it's not a composition food which qualifies it possible for the only know patent of it's kind. Patent expert Daniel Wright says, "I salute Alex Stenzel and his unprecented use of a cucumber: It's simple, it's elegant, and it's fashion model-friendly. It needed just one man, a knife, and a cucumber." The cucumber sandwich is a beauty of a design patent.

Recipes
As the Gorilla Sandwich can be virtually stuffed with anything that taste good in combination with a cucumber Stenzel's original recipes for the Gorilla Sandwich called for a "green sandwich" with leafy green vegetables such as kale, stuffing the ingredient in layers into the sandwich. But since the introduction of the Gorilla Sandwich the health food communities have been inspired by the idea of using a cucumber as a container for a sandwich and have come up with their own variations for stuffings.

Ingredient Combinations For Filliings

 * walnuts, black olives, avocado, black kale, mustard greens and dulse.
 * avocado salad dressing, mixed greens, chopped red onion, diced tomatoes, chopped avocado, cilantro, and chopped carrot. Optional: black olives and goat cheese.
 * avocado, sun dried tomatoes ,mushrooms, spring onions and black olives and dressing.
 * green bell peppers, diced tomato, diced onion, diced celery, finely chopped alfalfa sprouts, finely chopped broccoli sprouts, small piece of chopped garlic, a bit of cayenne pepper and a dribble of flax oil.
 * chopped veggies: jalapeno, yellow peppers, tomato, sprouts, diced avocado, 'wilted' spinach (diced seasoned and dehydrated) marinated mushrooms, kelp, served with Snowdrop's Ranch Dip or other dressing.
 * stuffed with olives, sun dried tomatoes and salad.
 * germinated sprouts, lettuce, a layer of avocado, tomato, a few drops of lemon and salt layer.
 * lemon and chili powder.
 * tajine, crudités, sticks of vegetables like carrots, celery and jicama.
 * hemp burger, nuts , pepper and tomato.
 * nut pate, chopped tomato, celery and lettuce.
 * collard leafs, mushrooms, carrots, red peppers, cilantro, romaine and guacamole.
 * 1/3 cup hummus.
 * avocado, cucumber, tomato, dill, olive oil, sea salt.
 * kale, grated beets massaged in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, sea salt and kalamata olives.
 * fuji apple, avocado, wakame, lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and pepper.
 * red onion, avocado, papaya, mango, cashew, cucumber salad tossed with an agave or orange juice sauce.
 * cucumber, tomato, avocado, pine nuts tossed in a "pesto" sauce made from olive oil, garlic, pine nuts, basil, and sea salt.
 * nut pate made from 1 cup pumpkin seeds, 1 cup sunflower seeds (soaked in water overnight to yield proper consistency), blended up with red onion, cilantro, flax oil, sea salt, braggs aminos, 1 clove garlic.
 * sprouted quinoa, cucumber, raisins, chopped almonds, diced apples and chopped mint tossed in olive oil and lemon juice with a bit of agave, and sea salt.
 * 1/4	avocado, 1/4 cup walnuts, 1/4	cup spinach, 1 tsp olive oil, 2 tsp dijon mustard, 1tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 dash black pepper.
 * avocado salad dressing, mixed greens, chopped red onion, diced tomatoes, chopped avocado, cilantro and chopped carrot.
 * avocado salad dressing, mixed greens, chopped red onion, diced tomatoes, chopped avocado, cilantro, chopped carrot, black olives and goat cheese.