Category: Food

“Hmmmmmm.. food!”

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Beware Stealth Starbucks!

There has always been a certain amount of resentment about the success of Starbucks, the ubiquitous Seattle-based coffee chain. Many Americans hate chains in general, but there’s just something about Starbucks that really brings out the hate in people in a way that Chili’s and Applebee’s do not. Maybe it’s the “unnecessary luxury” of their products (everyone has to eat, but no one needs coffee, right?). Maybe it’s the “frou-frou” nature of their drinks. Maybe it’s their soccer mom clientele.

Whatever the case may be, Starbucks is acutely aware of this and is now launching a chain of individually-branded coffee houses throughout the US. These are Starbucks stores selling Starbucks products… but you won’t find the “Starbucks” name anywhere in the store. For all you know, “Myers Park Coffee Company” or “The Inman Park Coffee House” could be Starbucks locations in all but name only.

Seattle’s 15th Avenue E Coffee and Tea is the first of these locations, with more to come.

What do you think about these “stealth Starbucks” stores?

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Gordon Ramsey: Broke?

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey came this close to declaring bankruptcy earlier this year. Apparently the global recession has caused business to collapse at his worldwide chain of over 20 restaurants – in fact, profits have fallen from £3 million (around $5 million) to just under £400,000 (around $665,000). Things were so dire for Ramsey that he could no longer afford to keep up payments on a £10.5 million ($17 million) loan, and he and his father-in-law were compelled to put in £5 million of their own money into the business. Times are so tough that Ramsey had to sell his Ferrari F430 (one of his most prized possessions) and he even considered selling his London home. Interestingly, Ramsey says that business on the weekend isn’t so bad, but the weekday trade at his various restaurants has nearly come to a complete stop. Read more.

In other news, Ramsey announced that he will start charging diners on his Hell’s Kitchen show in a bid to cut down on the number of aspiring actors and “wannabes” on the show. Ramsey was infuriated last year when his alleged mistress, Sarah Symonds, was allowed into the dining room without his knowledge. Read more.

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Odds and Sods

As always, I’ve got a bunch of random stories piling up on my virtual desktop, so let’s get to it, shall we?

– Peter Pan got married! Randy Constan, who became one of the first “Internet celebrities” by dressing up as Peter Pan, tied the knot recently at Fiddleworth Chapel at the Bay Area Renaissance Faire (BARF?) in Tampa. Randy and “Princess Dorothy” appear to be very happy together!

– In more marriage news, it seems that comic book character Archie Andrews is finally getting married too! The comic’s publisher attempted to create some excitement by keeping it up in the air as to whether Archie would marry sweetheart blonde Betty or saucy brunette Veronica. But word has leaked out… and he’s going to marry Veronica! I think that’s a wise choice. Sure, Betty was sweet and all, but Veronica must be wildcat in the sack, no?

– You know blue M&Ms? Apparently the dye used to make them blue might be an effective treatment for spinal injuries. According to the linked article, “[t]he compound, Brilliant Blue G, can block a chemical which makes injuries worse by causing inflammation and destroying cells”. One bizarre side effect of the treatment: the skin turns a brilliant blue for a few days!

– This can’t be good: British bouncers and parking attendants have now been given power to issue tickets for anti-social behavior. So not only can the jerk working the door at some snooty nightclub not let you in, he can give you a citation for arguing with him over it, too.

– British couple Peter Clarke, and Sharon Arthurs-Chegini enjoyed a “champagne and cocaine” lifestyle after stealing a luxury yacht… but they died a horrible death after starving to death off the coast of Senegal. To make matters worse, they ran out of fresh water, too. When I visited the Dachau concentration camp back in 1991, I learned all the gory details about what happens when a person dies from total starvation (Nazis would often lock camp troublemakers in a room without food or water until they died). It’s not something I’d wish on anyone, and I can’t imagine what those poor folks went through!

– And lastly, here’s the opposite of starvation: the Rubik’s Cubewich…

Rubiks Cubewich

Man, I want one of those!

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Chaos Erupts in Korea

Chaos exploded in Korea today, as Korean contestant Debbie Lee, who is Korean, was voted off The Next Food Network Star television show. Debbie’s two dishes, Korean-style Korean shortribs from Korea and Korean pear rolls a’ la Korea, were deemed inferior by the show’s panel of judges, who are not Korean. Lee, who is Korean, appeared to be devastated by the news.

“As a Korean with Korean parents from Korea, I’m completely at a loss. By the way, I’m Korean”, Lee was quoted as saying.

As soon as news leaked out from New York, violence broke out in the Hongdae neighborhood of Seoul, which quickly moved to the Insadong and Itaewon neighborhoods.

“Debbie has insulted Korean’s citizens, Korea’s culture, Korea’s past, and Korean’s proud culinary traditions”, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak was quoted as saying. “May the ghosts of her ancestors haunt her for all eternity for the shame she, as a Korean, has placed upon us”.

Lee, who is of Korean decent, is Korean.

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Futuristic, 100-flavor Coke dispenser tested

Man, I hope this catches on nationwide, because I wanna try this SO BAD!

Those ubiquitous soft-drink dispensers in fast-food restaurants may soon go the way of the portable CD player.

This summer, Coca-Cola is rolling out a new generation of drink dispensers that let customers use a touch screen to choose from more than 100 varieties instead of the usual six or so.

If you’ve ever had a hankering to try Orange Coke, Peach Fanta or Strawberry Sprite — flavors that have never before been sold in the United States — now’s your chance.

The new machines are being test-marketed in San Diego and Atlanta, Coca-Cola’s corporate headquarters.

via Futuristic, 100-flavor Coke dispenser tested.

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Scotch Eggs

Scotch EggScotch eggs are a dish that always looked interesting to me. Unfortunately, I’ve never seen them on a restaurant menu anywhere.

This week I went to the grocery store for a couple of items I needed for dinner. As luck would have it, my local Bi-Lo had a “buy one get one free” deal on breakfast sausage, and I knew that we had a pack of 18 eggs at home. I decided to go for it!

Below is the recipe I used. Let me know what you think!

Software:

4-6 hardboiled eggs
1 lb. sausage
2 Tbs. flour
1 egg, beaten
Bread crumbs

Hardware:

1 large pot
2 medium bowls
1 fork or whisk
Several paper plates
A deep fryer, or equivalent

1) Carefully put the eggs in the pot and cover with around 1″ of water. Bring to a boil and cook for approximately 15 minutes.

2) While the eggs are cooking, put the sausage in one of the bowls. Add the flour and mix thoroughly into the sausage (if you’d like to add additional spices to the sausage, this would be the time to do so).

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REVIEW: Guinness 250th Stout

Guinness_250_01On December 31, 1759, Arthur Guinness signed a  9000 year lease for an abandoned brewery in Dublin at the rate of £45 per year. That was the beginning of the now-massive Guinness brand, and it was all headquartered at the St. James Gate brewery, now one of Ireland’s most popular tourist destinations.

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of that lease, Guinness has released a special version of their namesake stout in the US, Australia and Singapore. The brew, which will only be available for a limited time, should be available at stores everywhere.

So… how is it? Honestly, it’s a bit disappointing. I expected something… big, something unusual from such a momentous event. In the end, all I got was a stout that tasted something like “Guinness Lite”. It’s significantly lighter than regular Guinness, and whatever “bitter” flavor that normally exists in the stout has been cut down significantly. Oh, and it totally lacks the creamy head that Guinness is known for! (see pic below)

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Marketing Fail?

Back in 2008, candy giant Hershey changed the formulas of many of its “second tier” candies like Mr Goodbar. Today’s Mr Goodbar is no longer “peanuts in milk chocolate”, but instead “peanuts in chocolate candy” (which is actually “mockolate“, a confection made with cocoa solids but no cocoa butter, substituting instead much cheaper vegetable oil).

The new bars taste like crap, of course. However, like all good marketing wonks, Hershey’s PR people are falling all over themselves to tell anyone who will listen that people actually prefer the new, non-chocolate version of Mr Goodbar. If that’s the case… then why does this new product exist:

hersheys_peanuts

There it is… yet another sign that the end of the world is coming!

See if you can follow this: Hershey decided that using milk chocolate to make Mr Goodbar was too expensive, so they opted to change the Mr Goodbar formula to use mokolate instead of chocolate. Hershey’s PR reps claimed victory… but “so many people loved the new Mr Goodbar” (sarcasm) that now the company is using the Hershey brand to sell a new product that amounts to the old product… instead of just going back to the old Mr Goodbar formula in the the first place!

In case anyone from Hershey is reading this, it’s stuff like this (not to mention your complete embrace of mokolate) that keep me an M&M Mars fan. As a kid, I ate enough Hershey bars to sink a battleship… but now I’d rather eat a 10 year-old Milky Way bar than anything from Hershey!

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REVIEW: H&M Deli

Topix is a website that hosts discussion groups for tens of thousands of cities and small towns all across America. They even have a forum for Belmont, North Carolina, and I check it around once a week or so just to see what’s going on there.

I recently saw a thread there praising the H&M Deli in nearby Cramerton. What really got my attention was that everyone seemed to like it, something rare at the Topix board. I decided to check the place out a couple of weeks ago.

(Apologies for the “shaky cam” pictures. I hadn’t planned to do a review of the place and so I only had my cell phone handy!)

The first thing you’ll notice when you walk in is that H&M isn’t just a deli. They’re a full-blown specialty store with wines, beer, cheeses, spices, and other food products from around the world:

hm_01

The second thing you’ll notice is that these items are frightfully expensive, and not just because most of them are top-shelf quality. Allow me to use Sriracha hot sauce as an example. My local Walmart sells the 17oz. bottle for $1.99. Local Harris Teeter stores sell it for $4.99. H&M sell it for $5.99 $5.09, which is just a rip-off.  (Helpful tip: Asian Market on Wilkinson Blvd. in Belmont sells the 28oz. bottle for $3.99). Having said all that, H&M just might be the only place in Gaston County where you can buy Hawai’ian black sea salt, so if you’ve just gotta have some, it’s probably better to take the 10 minute drive to H&M and pay $15.99 than drive all the hell way over to South Park just to save $4.

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