Rheon Encrusting Machine Stuffs Food Into Other Foods (VIDEO)

We at HuffPost Food are clearly intrigued with food-making robots -- sushi bot or pizza vending machine, anyone? -- so our heart skipped a beat when we learned about the Rheon encrusting machine, a gadget that stuffs foods into other foods.

In other words, it's an empanada-dumpling-knish-making machine! A factory plant outfitted with the Rheon contraptions can pump out 10,000 to 15,000 pounds of a particular product an hour, which means these babies are fast.

Rheon is a Japanese company, but its technology is used in 112 countries, including the U.S. Science and tech site PopSci.com spoke with the company's national sales director in the U.S., Jon Thompson, who explained that the machines are customizable to fit a country's palate:

In Germany, we have equipment that makes a knödel, a potato ball. In other countries, we can make a tamale, or a filled upscale cookie. It could be confectionery, ethnic foods; it makes Italian arancini ...

You could do a calzone, you could do a Hot Pocket, you could do a pierogi, a knödel, filled cookies, there’s tons of stuff you could do.

The company's website has a dizzying list of even more possibilities, which you can see here.