nosh nook #148 - wednesday, october 7, 2009

first look: calories on fast-food menus don't change choices (link)
10.07.09 - washington post - by jennifer larue huget

...so back in july of last year, as one of mayor bloomberg's many "we're going to stick our nose into your business" initiatives, nyc passed legislation requiring restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus. the thinking behind it was that once people were able to see how many calories they were consuming when they ate, they'd cut down on fast food & start eating healthier. thinking that this would be the result takes a bit of specious reasoning, as for many low-income citizens, being able to afford to eat usually takes precedence over being able to eat healthy. value meal!

as the washington post reports, the results of the first study measuring the effects of the legislation have come in & they're the complete opposite of what was expected. health affairs, a peer-reviewed medical journal "looked at fast-food purchases made in low-income areas of new york city...and, as a control, in nearby newark, new jersey, where no such requirement exists." they compared receipts & interviewed customers & found little difference between consumers' actions before & after the law went into effect. in nyc, the number of calories consumed actually went up. the post captures it best in the article's opening line, which is no more than the word "oops."

what went wrong? the study offers a few possible reasons. "the timing was wrong." "the sample size (was) too small." "maybe...there should have been a sign telling people that 2,000 calories is the most they should consume in a day." the post suggests that "maybe people just don't care--or would prefer to ignore--the number of calories they're consuming when they eat fast food." the study, the post & the mayor don't seem to be considering that other factor i mentioned. if you're a low-income mother looking to feed a family of five after getting home from a ten-hour shift & KFC offers you a deal on a twenty-piece bucket of chicken, you're going to take it, calorie count be damned. i guess when you're a medical journal, a 200+ year-old paper or a billionaire mayor, that scenario doesn't cross your mind.

nosh nook #146 - monday, october 5, 2009

mcdonald's restaurants to open at the louvre (link)
10.04.09 - the telegraph - by henry samuel

the french hate a lot of things. they obviously hate americans, but they also hate head scarves, uncultured cultures & deodorant. even though they hate americans, with the exception of one dude, they pretty much all love mcdonald's. in fact, they love mcdonald's so much that they're the country with the second most mcdonald's in it, behind the united states. i'm going to assume it has a lot to do with the french fries. you know what they call french fries over in france? "frites." i know! you know what they call a big mac over there? oh, never mind. anyway, mcdonald's is celebrating its 30th anniversary in france & they're doing so in grand style.

to celebrate, they're opening up their "1,142nd gallic outlet" & their artsiest location yet "a few yards from the entrance to the country's mecca of high art and the worlds most visited museum," the louvre. according to the telegraph, museum staff are sort of peeved about having such a symbol of evil global consumerism in such close proximity to the mona lisa. one art historian said, "this is the pinnacle of exhausting consumerism, deficient gastronomy and very unpleasant odours in the context of a museum." unpleasant? personally, i think there might be something artistic in seeing the venus de milo whilst the smell of sizzling meat & frites wafts past your nose.

the mcdonald's is going to be part of a food court featuring world cuisine (mcdonald's = america) & in the next three years, a new ticket booth will be erected right nearby. the same peeved art historian noted that "the first thing visitors will likely see when they arrive are big golden arches." what's wrong with that? i believe andy warhol said it best when he said "the most beautiful thing in tokyo is mcdonald's. the most beautiful thing in stockholm is mcdonald's. the most beautiful thing in florence is mcdonald's. peking and moscow don't have anything beautiful yet." c'mon, france! don't you want something beautiful right at the entrance to the louvre? andy would've wanted it that way.

nosh nook #126 - monday, september 7, 2009

amateur stylist turns fast food into fancy food (link)
09.06.09 - the detroit free press - by michael hill, a.p.

man, the internet is pretty much the sweetest way to get attention these days. i'm not just talking about porn, although that's a pretty substantial way to get noticed, make some money, get a reliable coke hookup & meet interesting people who will have sex with you. i'm talking about getting your kid all drugged up, videotaping him & putting it on youtube. i'm talking about putting your band's new emo rocker up on myspace. i'm talking about coming up with some random niche idea, starting a crazy website about it & watching the press roll in.

back in may, brooklyn's erik trinidad started up a crazy site, fancyfastfood.com, which is devoted to reworking fast food items into fancy looking dishes. ever since posting his first creation--the mcsteak & potatoes (a reworking of a big mac value meal)--he's got a TON of attention from news outlets & blogs. yesterday, the detroit free press (freep!) decided to give him more attention by picking up an associated press article from a few weeks back. i guess he deserves the attention. the site's unique & pretty well done. i'm just sick of hearing about it.

trinidad's "a freelance interactive designer and writer with no formal culinary training." besides his work with the mcdonalds' big mac, he's made masterpieces out of meals from popeye's (spicy chicken sushi), taco bell (tacobellini), domino's (dao mi noh chow mein), dunkin' donuts (boston kreme brulee) & nathan's (faux foie gras). he posts a new creation about once a week, but he's always "wracking his brain for new dishes." now that he's got attention, a twitter account & a facebook page, "the pressure's on." luckily, there's enough crappy fast food in this world to keep him busy for decades.

nosh nook #96 - monday, july 27, 2009

report: nkorea opens 1st fast-food restaurant (link)
07.25.09 - the ny times - by ap

hans brix? oh no! oh, herro. great to see you again, hans! why don't you come in & enjoy one of our tasty north korean hamburgers? excuse me...north korean "minced beef & bread." they're really tasty & wouldn't you much rather have a tasty minced beef & bread than worry about which countries have nuclear technology & which ones don't? which ones are letting inspectors in & which ones aren't? which ones need to have people-crushing sanctions imposed on them & which ones don't?

that's right, folks. last month, with the help of a singaporean company, north korea opened up pyongyang's first fast food restaurant. it looks like your average fast food joint, but as the times reports, the menu at the restaurant--samtaesong--"is careful not to call its signature fare a hamburger--lest it give the impression north koreans had embraced the american icon." i know the hamburger's an american icon & all, but i really hope that north koreans aren't over there behind the il curtain, thinking that americans dine on is hamburgers. we're so much more than that. we also like fries with our burgers.

the average north korean can't even afford to eat there, what with the messed up economy & food shortages & whatnot that the country's having. the times notes that "the minced beef and bread at the new fast-food restaurant costs only $1.70...but that would eat up more than half of the average north korean's daily income. south korea's central bank put last year's average per capita income at $1,065." it's too bad, really. the restaurant also has kimchi, waffles & draft beer & "plans to add croissants and hot dogs to its menu in the coming months." it's like a smorgasbord of food items with no discernable theme...except for the NOT AMERICAN theme. after all, we are basically the devil or something & nobody wants a devil-themed restaurant...or do they?

nosh nook #44 - thursday, may 14, 2009

list calories, and diners will at least look (link)
05.13.09 - boston globe - by stephen smith

we new yorkers have always been trendsetters. last year, led by the genius of folks like nanny-mayor mike bloomberg, we forced restaurants with more than fifteen nationwide locations to list their foods' calorie counts on their menus, allowing restaurant-goers to assess the damage before deciding what to eat. now, after a few other locales (philly, seattle) have jumped on board with this idea, massachusetts has decided to join the party.

as steven smith reports, posting calories has had some effect on peoples' purchasing decisions. "surveys by the new york city department of health suggest that the calorie counts at least make people think a bit more about what they put in their stomachs." i've always been a bit skeptical of the idea that chain restaurants should be forced to post calorie counts. on one hand, i'm all for keeping businesses honest, but on the other hand, i'm not sure it's the answer to our health & dietary problems. if consumers can't figure out that a mcdonalds big mac has a lot of calories by now, they probably shouldn't be eating it. although MA is the exception, with their state-mandated health care, i find it perversely humorous that governments in general fight so hard for regulations such as this, but not to get people health care.

since this article came out yesterday, the mass public health council has voted to adopt the regulations, meaning that starting in november 2010, any restaurant with over twenty locations will have to start posting calories. all the thousands of other restaurants in the city don't have to worry about it though, so unless you're someone who eats at mcdonalds every single day, you're not going to know how many calories you're taking in at all times. if you are eating fast food every day, then you have an issue that's larger than restaurants posting calories on a menu board.