ataraxia's picture ataraxia Submitted by Guest on Wed, 12/28/2011 - 21:54

I'm in a particularly Scrooge-y mood today, so one addendum to food trends that suck: the proliferation of websites like Groupon, Living Social, etc.

I love the discounts these websites offer, and have had quite a few good experiences, but what really upsets me is how restaurants or waitstaff will often give coupon users substandard service. I thought the point of these deals was to draw new customers in, not alienate them?

I'm a pretty good tipper for a poor recent graduate: at least 15% for normal service pre-discount, and upwards of 20% when it's good. But, more often than not, the waitress will see that I'm using a voucher, and promptly avoid my party for the rest of the night. One time, at a national chain, the waitress "forgot" my side, didn't refill our drinks, and tried upcharging my baby brother for fries that were included in the deal. After our food came in spastic, uncoordinated jolts, she promptly disappeared to the kitchen for the rest of her shift since the restaurant was near empty (gee, I wonder why?)

Tl:DR If you're going to offer Groupon, don't treat customers like steerage.

ataraxia's picture ataraxia Submitted by Guest on Wed, 12/28/2011 - 18:33

Anyway, for my real entry, I think that foraging smacks of hypocrisy. There was a huge NYT article on foraging sometime this year, about how supposedly environmentally-conscious people are gathering wild flora and fauna to eat from parks and forests. I'm not talking about your typical Chinese FOB gathering seaweed (Hi mom!) from the ocean for "health" reasons, which is bad in its own way; I'm talking about herds of self-important hippies.

Foraging sucks because:

1) It is often illegal, especially in national parks and on private property.

2) Well, why is it illegal? Studies show that unless you're highly trained and knowledgeable about the wild, chances are, you're f***ing up the local ecosystem. People who forage include a bunch of "Save the Earth"-types, so this habit is especially flagrant and hypocritical. Moreover, it can be very dangerous. A nontrivial number of people die from foraging.

Basically, foraging seems like the demented product of locavoreism and good intentions run amok.

ataraxia's picture ataraxia Submitted by Guest on Wed, 12/28/2011 - 18:16

My first impression was: "Great response and writing! Wow! So rare to see that on comments and forums!"

Then my inner skeptic and English proofreading senses kicked in, and Google turns up this: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/8-worst-food-trends-of-2011.html

If you're going to plagiarize stuff off the internet, try something other than near-direct copying. Wink

ting.ting's picture ting.ting Submitted by Guest on Wed, 12/28/2011 - 18:05

cupcakes!!

they are glorified buns!

how can people be so into a small bit of sponge with icing - i mean if my granny made them in her oven id do the decent thing and eat it - but there is no way i could ever imagine going out of my way to find a good cupcake - THEY ARE JUST ICED SPONGE

but im sure they go great with a nice bit of jewelry making, glass blowing, spice sourcing or whatever else expat wives find to spend their husbands money

Jamesbr's picture Jamesbr Submitted by Guest on Wed, 12/28/2011 - 17:38

Artificial Truffle Oil

Most commercially available truffle oil is made by adding chemical fragrance compounds to olive oil — musky, mushroomy, rancid-smelling, sweet-and-sour, nasty fragrance compounds. Ubiquitous on gastro-pub French fries, on fancy-restaurant brunches of shirred eggs, and all-too-often added to finish innocent fresh-mushroom dishes, truffle oil has become the Axe body spray of ambitious chefs who are also lazy and have no palate. There is nothing worse than ordering an honest mushroom pizza and having it show up reeking like a skunk that took a maple syrup bath.

maxwu's picture maxwu Submitted by Guest on Wed, 12/28/2011 - 16:38

We have a winner: we've decided to award user thenines two tickets for Yen. However, he/she won't be in Beijing at the time so congratulations, Ni.Hao.Dinosaur! You won two tickets to Yen! Our lovely marketing staff will contact you for sending you the tickets.

Nothing to see here

maxwu's picture maxwu Submitted by Guest on Wed, 12/28/2011 - 16:30

We have a winner: In the spirit of goodwill to all competition entrants, we've decided to award user hazh1p two tickets for Nova! An email was sent by our friendly marketing staff for making arrangements for sending you the tickets.

Nothing to see here