fresco

Anyone worked in a Mormon kitchen or some other place where booze and drugs never, ever intrude? What's it like?

Doesn't Waitrose publish a food magazine that is sold on news stands? Is it any good?

Loblaw supermarkets in Canada have provided impressive competition to national and global food brands by developing a huge array of private label products under the President's Choice label. Rather than compete with extremely low priced "no name" products (although they do this as well) Loblaw adopted a "class for the masses" approach-- premium butters, oils, sauces, etc., a chocolate chip cookie that became the No 1 seller nationally, and a ton of frozen entrees and appretizers. They have forced at least one of their competitors to launch a competing (and in my opinion, not very good) private label selection. Opinions are mixed about President's Choice products. Some people have an almost moonie-like devotion to them; others think they are the work of the devil. What's the best and worst private label stuff that you encounter in your food markets?

Have you tried shopping with a firearm?

Could it be that restaurant kitchens have more than their share of drinkers/druggies because they attract more than their share of romantics/ troubled misfits?

It depends on which drugs, doesn't it? Having worked with an astonishing array of pisstanks and potheads (never in a kitchen) over the years, I'll take the potheads every time. But I don't think people using big jolts of coke or chemicals would be a lot of fun in any environment.

Why should choosing between jars and fresh involve guilt? Fresh is what you are able to use given the great luxury of time. Jars get you fed--perhaps not as well, but fed.

I will say this for pot--it made meals of brown rice and unseasoned vegetable stir fries almost palatable. It also helped that we were young and hungry.

Another sign of desperation is trying to fix a fundamental business problem with an ad campaign. What you are likely to see is stories a few months down the road quoting unnamed company insiders who say the campaign ain't working. Then they'll roll out something else.

WHT, So they either need a smarter clientele or a shorter menu, or both. New slogan-- If your brain is slack just say Big Mac!

That tableau is "fun" "hip" etc. --soup kitchen chic.

Over the last few years sales have stalled, they fired their CEO, are closing unprofitable stores all over North America and watching their margins vanish as they duke it out on price. They're beset by obesity lawsuits and an unshakeable perception that their food is unhealthy. They've tried to break out of the burger niche, with not much luck. Burgers are what people think of when they think of McDonalds. That used to be a tremendous advantage. Now McDonald's is almost at the point where they have negative brand equity--they're trapped in a really, really bad spot. It's gone from "You deserve a break today," to "McDonalds? Give me a break."

Is that why you answer to Big Mac?

Bow wow, perhaps.

"a slight to the Welsh people who could not afford meat years ago" The number of slights (and worse) against the Welsh is a long one-- "welsh" used to be used more or less as a synonym for "deadbeat."

"It'll be fun, it'll be relevant, it'll be hip, it'll be compelling, and it will connect with people of all ages," chief operating officer Charlie Bell said. Isn't this pretty well word for word what every official of a desperate, out-of-touch large corporation says about their new campaign? And isn't it pretty well axiomatic that if you have to say you are fun, relevant, hip, compelling, etc., then you aren't?

Frozen rarebit? Didn't know such a thing existed. Isn't rarebit just melted cheese with a few other things thrown in on toast or something?

Did you ever see the Meat Dress on its travels? A steak house that displays art is certainly an improvement over an art gallery that displays steak.

You know that from talking to your friend the waiter, right?

Yup. They're also cheap to produce, hence popular in newspapers.

Italian salsa--that's the cheap music you hear in bars around Rome, isn't it?

But fair, for all of that?

Also, this is a ranking based on magazines found on the coffee tables of journalists--perhaps not the most inspired bunch of people in the world--or honest. It may simply be that when asked what magazines they read and like, they gave answers that they felt put them in the best light. If the Economist was actually read by all the people who say they read it, its circulation would be in the high millions, not the low hundred thousands...

All but the dullest rankings are arbitrary.

Are you better off drinking the champagne of ginger ales or the ginger ale of champagnes?