Tess

Your mention of the French 75 makes me think... champagne and gin. It is not hard to get people to drink champagne cocktails and there are quite a number of good, fairly traditional ones made with gin. (This may duplicate suggestion in the menu linked above-- that's a pdf file and those crash my computer.)

You think? The original poster is writing for a major university's student paper and has these few years to build up a good clippings file and to use the university's network to line up jobs. Throwing that away with the vague hope of getting a famous writer to mentor you? Just nuts, in my opinion. If you hate school, leave. You're not going to get much out of it if you haven't the interest or the motivation. But journalism is one thing you can get a lot of practice in during college. And also, no stigma attaches to writing for free if it's your college paper. In the meantime you can also be studying languages, sciences and any number of other things that can help you deepen as a writer.

You could say the same thing about a bacon sarnie. Or a lot of other foods. At this point, I don't think you are talking about any particular cultural phenomenon.

I've seen it work in a rural area although I can't tell you how well they were doing financially.

Yes.

Most of my favorites are Japanese; luckily, I have a Mitsuwa market nearby. We always have Pretz and Calbee shrimp crisps in the house, along with whatever rice crackers look good, and sometimes wasabi peas. And boiled edamame with lots of salt. I am also shamefully addicted to baked Cheetos, especially the hot and spicy ones which I have trouble finding except in the vending machines at work. And I like Stacey's soy crisps, but no other brand.

At my house, we drink both wine and beer, I'd say about 50-50 for the guy I live with and I drink about half as much beer as wine. (My beer consumption is getting less and less because it seems to affect my weight more than moderate wine consumption does.) Intuitively, I'm ready to believe that about the supermarket receipts but when I saw that spot on Tv I had to laugh at the idea that people are "wine drinkers" or "beer drinkers;" it's just not true of most people I run into. Except for some who drink wine and no other alcoholic beverages.

I actually prefer Knudsen's concentrate to Pom Wonderful for most uses. It's especially good for adding to champagne and cocktails; it doesn't affect the fizz and the volume as much.

On the other hand, we are talking about the Heartland. Even in most of the Chicago metro area, the small locals can be much more competitive price-wise than they could be in the middle of Philadelphia. Agreed, there are no absolutes.

I bought a couple of those because my husband's doctor recommended them and I wanted to be able to say we'd tried them. That is one hell of an expensive bag o' beans.

I'll say this for places like PF Chang and Cheesecake Factory-- they have fun cocktails and the bars are comfortable to sit in, as I've discovered when accompanying tireless shoppers to the Woodfield Mall. I have a Sex in the City type drink and an appetizer while waiting. Appetizers are pretty forgettable but not vile.

I'm going to try to ask them about the mayo next time there's a familiar face around. They do seem quite forthcoming about stuff. Once I asked them how a certain kind of beer was and they opened a bottle for me.

Ditto. That is one of their products that is often labeled as being made with lower fat or lower calorie mayonnaise. Have you got any idea what they use for that? I really like those products, and I don't even like mayonnaise from a jar, in fact I hate it. I love their diet chicken salads and have totally given up on trying to duplicate them at home.

I've seen lists like this often. I find them odd because the items are ill-assorted and not all on the same level. They're problematic for all different reasons. Some are useless, some are harmful, some are OK in moderation. They say that alcohol is the most troublesome of all, yet you can have some of it. What are people who know nothing about food going to make of this? I'm not a nutritionist, or anything like that, but it seems like it's silly to give out checklists of "bad" foods. What do they except people to do-- go down the list, avoid each of these ten things and reassure themselves that they're eating fine?

I am fond of a north suburban Chicago chain of stores called Foodstuffs which offers ready-made food at outrageous prices. It has all what I consider the merits of a chain. They make the same things over and over. Some of the stuff is so-so (especially for the price) and some is dependably good. You can get schedules of what they are serving on any day of the week. They have a good number of foods with Weight Watchers points and/or "carb" counts. It seems like I can always get a decent lunch there although I wouldn't want to every day. To be fair, this is a tiny chain and I can't imagine them expanding beyond the one area because the food is mainly cooked fresh; even the frozen stuff looks made in small batches. In a way, the deli and ready-made food section of Whole Foods is a chain, isn't it? Unlike Foodstuffs, I would not consider that a dependable place to get lunch every day though.

I completely agree, Ron. And I think everyone who's chimed in here cooks a lot and is not exclusively (or even mainly in some cases) interested in restaurant eating. Imagine having no interest in or talent for cooking. Just a tin ear for food, so to speak. I believe there are perfectly decent people who are that way, although it is hard to envision if it's a big part of your life the way it is for most of us in this discussion. My sister is a fashion designer and she'll tell you you have no excuse for going out of the house looking less than sharp. But not fashionable, because you're a sucker if you buy from those stores that everyone goes to. Her view is, you've got to wear something every day, it's a sin for it to be uninteresting. Plus size? Don't have any money? No excuse; you can still do something about your clothes. Uh, OK.

But what's your answer to those of us who say we enjoy cooking very much but find it a chore at times? Do you think that's just not a reasonable standpoint?

In your opinion. I love to cook, but yes indeed, in my experience cooking can be a chore. I agree with Behemoth. People have all sorts of reasons to want to go out for a meal. Some people don't understand why anyone gets coffee out when you can always make better coffee at home. Some don't understand why people pay the markups on booze and wine in restaurants. Others don't get why anyone eats out, ever. I understand all those points of view on some level. What I don't understand is why anyone thinks their pet one is the only reasonable one.

I bought a Wolfgang Puck salad in the LA (I think) airport and it had a hair in it. Other than that, I don't recall it looking much different-- I didn't taste it-- than most of the prepackaged food you can buy around airports. I've always thought of WP as being kind of a watered-down brand. He sells frozen food and terrible canned soup as well.

I think that's a really good point. A lot of my friends like to eat out largely to be waited on and have a sense of luxury. If they can go high-end, fine, but if you can't, a chain that offers a certain experience (can you say "hospitaliano"?) may be an alternative. I don't mean to sound snobby about this. I enjoy being catered to as well. Your store sounds really neat, by the way. Wish I'd had something like that when I was living on the prairie.

No kidding. Might as well have a Coke. Fresh squeezed is another matter but it's still a lot of sugar to start the day with as a routine.

As with an awful lot of the industry, be they private chefs, cooking teachers, food writers, etc. -- there are people calling themselves experts and being paid to do things who are un- or underqualified, or simply clueless. ← Exactly. There are a lot of fine personal chefs out there. You've got to be aware of whom you are hiring for any position. After my mother died, my father had a housekeeper who was a fine cook but it would not have been fair to expect her to do the amount of food shopping, planning and preparation that's being described in that thread.

A lot of it's about money, for me. I have not eaten in an Olive Garden but the guy I live with has 3-4 times. He swore off them because of really bad service at one point. His verdict is the food is mediocre and expensive for what it is. My main complaint about chains I have visited at that sort of middle level is you end up spending a surprising lot of money. Where I live (Chicago suburbs) there are a good number of nice family-owned places you can eat at for similar cost. I wouldn't swear never to enter an Olive Garden. Places like that can really come in handy when you are traveling. If I'm not traveling, though, I'd rather just eat at home, put the money into a nice bottle of wine or something. Sometimes we do like to go out just to go out-- more to have a date night than for really striking food. But we can do that cheaper at a pub.

Just wanted to add, for your classic picnic-table experience, try to check out Giovanni's shrimp wagon on the North Shore. Reid has an entry about it.

Pretty much as I feared. My idea of adding infused vodkas to sake was as a way of putting in fruit flavors without having to add too much sweetness as juices or syrups would.