TAPrice

Looks good Rob. What made you decide to go with Zulu colors instead of purple, green and gold?

This Dow Jones wire story warns of the dangers of price controls on food. This article attributes the rising costs primarily to demand for biofuel and improving diets in large developing countries like China and India. Interestingly, it points to price controls on oil in certain countries as one reason for the cost of fuel, another factor often cited for rising food costs.

Is there any reason to think that eating a well-balance diet with a decent amount of fiber provides sufficient prebiotics? Other than fiber, what are we talking about? What foods naturally have a high lever of prebiotics?

A local pizza chain is preaching the wonders of prebiotics. It's supposed to make you body absorb calcium, make your pipes work better, and just generally promote good health Yeah, I'm dubious. Food is not medicine. But honestly, I've got no facts on my side. I can say that eating pizza dough loaded with prebiotics gave me gas and made me run to the bathroom more than normal. Perhaps, though, this is a good effect. Anybody heard of this? Anybody know anything about it? A man named Jeff Leach seems to be promoting the idea.

This place has glass cases for all the individually plastic wrapped baked goods. I understand the health concerns, but I don't think that's the issue here.

What do you think is the proper timing between courses? Is there a maximum and minimum number of minutes? Is it relative? How do diners calculate this? Do good restaurant have a formula?

There is a nice little bakery down the street from me. I could walk there. I'd love to be a regular patron. There is just one problem--they individually wrap all their pastries in plastic wrap. I'm convinced that plastic wrap makes all the pastries and baked good taste off. Am I imagining this? It's not that I taste something synthetic from the wrap, but everything tastes muted. It all reminds me of the pastries sold from carts at the student lounge in college. What's going on here that makes things taste off?

I walked over the Walgreens to test an Antoine's king cake. The cake I got was filled. Foolishly, I assumed it would be filled with cream cheese. Turns out that it had a few pockets of yellow, lemonish goo. Despite that, I thought the case was pretty good. Or, as my wife said, "Not bad for a king cake." I'm still sticking with Haydel's, which is good. Period.

Here is something I didn't expect: the Walgreens on Tchoup is selling Antoine's king cakes. They've got both filled and plain. Can't say if the other Walgreens have them as well, but they might. Antoine's, which used to be on Freret before the storm and is now in Gretna (or maybe that Gretna location was already open), always pops up on everyone's list of best king cakes. I've been to the bakery in Gretna, but not during Carnival season. Perhaps today I'll walk over to Walgreen's and report back on the king cake. And a warning about another king cake. Avoid the terrible cakes sold at PJ's at all costs. I got one for my office last week. It claimed to be filled (don't even start--filled was the only option). Instead, it seemed to have been soaked in way too much almond extract. On top of that, there was an inch thick pool of icing in the center. Yuck. I can't remember the bakery's name that made this abomination, but it was in Slidell. Shame on PJ's for not selling better products. Of course, you can hardly expect a chain owned by some businessmen in Atlanta to get king cakes right.

I think it's probably closer to the truth to say that hors d'oeuvre is a French term referring to opening courses (it literally means "outside the works"), but that in America (not sure about other English-speaking places) it's been co-opted to mean finger food, either passed or laid out. ← I assumed that hors d'oeuvres were not part of the regular meal. Appetizers are the first course. I've got no evidence to back me up here.

When I last spoke to Boswell, he said that construction would begin on January 1st if all went well with the lease. I think he hoped to open in April, but I don't have my notes with me. I heard of Lorin Gaudin's radio show either this week or last that the lease was signed. Sounded like he got it done later than hoped (no surprise, it had to go through the state for approval).

Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing. I've got to get over there and order some take out.

Krewe de Vieux rolled Saturday. I heard the Jefferson City Buzzards out on their practice march this weekend. Parade season has arrive. So what are you going to make? Any special dishes? I have hazy recollections of the jambalaya burritos my friend Sue made last year. Basically, she wrapped jambalaya in a tortilla, which turned it into food you could eat with one hand. Brilliant. I can't remember if she pre-wrapped this or we made them on the neutral ground. Hell, their very existence might be an alcohol fueled fantasy. But if jambalaya burritos don't exist, then somebody ought to invent them.

I started getting serious about cocktails this summer. In that short time, I've found that my taste in drinking has changed dramatically. Basically, I find the idea of drinking wine unappealing and, dare I say, gauche. Don't get me wrong, I still love wine with food. And occasionally I do enjoy a glass. And aperitif wines and sherry are as appealing as ever. But normally the idea of sitting around drinking wine just doesn't thrill me. Without food it seems so astringent, so unbalance, and with ever sip I keep thinking how much better a well-made cocktail would be. I've also found that most American beers now strike me as incredibly sweet. Anybody else had this transformation?

My ability to taste certainly improved when I stopped smoking. I could smell again. I've also heard chefs insist that it has no effect. Maybe they learn to compensate over time? I don't know. Rather than anecdotal evidence, I'd like to see some science on how smoking affects the sense of taste and smell.

I've had a general sense that groceries have increased, but it's hard for the consumer to track these things (ok, it's not hard, but few of us analyze our expenditures the way a business does). It seems like people are quick to recognize increases on certain key items, like milk, but that may be because these items fluctuate more. I just find it odd that, if the price increses are starting to be felt, that we haven't seen a political response. I mean, gas prices edge up and suddenly congress holds hearings. I suspect that many manufacturers, restaurants and retailers, like Rob, have been eating the costs and shielding consumer from the full cost. Is there a political solution? Is there a structural solutions? Or are higher prices just something we'll have to live with?

This fascinating New York Times article looks at rising cost of palm oil. It's a complicated issue. The article says the rising cost is driven by higher transportation costs, increasing use of biofuel, economic mobility in developing nations leading to increased demand and global warming affecting agricultural areas. With so many factors, it's hard to see an answer to the problem. Have food price increased dramatically where you live? I have to assume that rising costs have yet to hit American consumers hard, or we would see some talk among politicians about it. This article is the first part of a series.

According to Jeff Berry's most recent book, Donn Beachcomber (his real name!) broght Polyensian culture to Hawaii. When he set up shop, the colonial efforts had wiped out much authentic culture, architecture, food, etc. When intercontinental air traveler became more common, tourists arrived expecting pretty much what they had experienced at Beachcomber and Vic's. Donn provided it and sat in motion the Polynesian themed tourist trade.

In an article on Slate about about the New Hampshire primary, I ran across this wonderful term: "Food-verb events," what an apt phrase. So what are the popular food-verb events where you live? Does the expression translate into other languages and culture? Down here in Louisiana, of course, we have the crawfish boil. P.S. Please keep the conversation on food and not politics. Any off topic posts on politics will just create work for the host, and since that's me I strongly disapprove of such behavior.

I would certainly book ahead. The tourist season is low (everyone else in the U.S. is still recovering from Christmas instead of gearing up for Mardi Gras), but you never want to chance the popular places. Anyway, walking in would be more likely to get you the bad table in the house.

Lunch only. Mon-Sat, although I'd call to double check that they're still serving Saturday.

This cane syrup is pretty thick stuff, though. Thicker than maple syrup or even honey. More like molasses in consistency. I'm mainly concerned about it mixing well (I'll try it tonight to see). I picked it up at a Middle Eastern grocery store.

I recently picked up a bottle of pure cane syrup. Tasting it side by side with the basic simple syrup in my frig, the simple syrup tastes so boring. It's sweet, but not much else. My first question is how to dilute the cane syrup for drinks. I'm thinking that the 1:1 ration of water to sugar typically used for simple syrup would create something too watery. I'm assuming that whatever works for the cane syrup could also be used to create a honey syrup or a molasses syrup. Jeff Berry told me that honey syrups were often used in tiki drinks. I also saw that Robert Hess makes his simple syrup with demerara sugar. Has anyone tried it? Does the demerara contribute enough flavor to justify the cost. Any other suggestions for interesting substitutes for standard simply syrup?

Fat Guy, you've forced me to examine my own misguided approach to judging price. Thinking back, I tend to judge the cost of a restaurant based exclusively on entree price. Until this thread, that seemed like a fine approach. Now I'm wondering if restaurants expect this and tweak the margins of the meal (appetizers, drinks, desserts) to boost the cost. I'd have to think, though, that most people pay close attention to when entree prices hover below $10 or average above $30. There is something magical about multiples of ten. Having worked for a number of local and national publications, I've seen many approaches to this problem. Without naming names, here's what I've seen: 1) Ask restaurant for the average entree price, and then assign the place into a broad category (i.e. $, $$ or $$) 2) Determine the second highest entree price, and then assign restaurant to category. 3) Attempt to calculate an average three-course meal without drinks and then assign to a broad category. I'm not sure any of these approaches produces completely satisfying results. The real problem is deciding where to draw the line on each price category.

It seems unwise to generalize about an entire people based on a few comments here. I wonder how often conservation efforts succeed by changing the habits of a large group of consumers? My guess is that such efforts succeed by wining over a few vocal, politically engaged consumers, who then pressure chefs, stores and other suppliers.