Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Food Day: I missed my own anniversary edition

Happy food day folks. If I were a better food blogger, I would have remembered that a year and two days ago Apples wrote the first post for Apples and Bananas about Eamonn's in Old Town Alexandria.

The blog has changed in some ways, and maintained a certain status quo in others. I still write about food, though the majority of my posts are shorter, and sometimes have very little serious food related content.

If you've read this over the past year, thank you. If this is your first time visiting, welcome. I'm looking forward to another great year of writing...but first, today's news:

Meet your meat: The Washington Post food section has a really interesting article about the changing nature of artificial meat, in particular just how real looking it is, giving a lot of vegans and vegetarians pause before they chow down.

A part as big as its sum: Nori, the dried seaweed that we find extensively in sushi restaurants and increasingly everywhere else these days is gaining popularity and is becoming one of the hot new food trends according to an article in the NYT food section. Once hid by inside out rolls, Nori is now featured in pastas and salads.

Now where's my IT person?: Are waiters and waitresses a thing of the past? Will a computer, not a person tell you what the daily specials are? According to a CBS report out of NYC, yes, it sure looks that way. There is an increasing trend of self-service kiosks where diners simply use a computer to order, instead of interacting with a server.

Honestly, I think this is a horrible idea. Machines break down, people will get confused, it will slow down service.

My question to you is, would you be more or less willing to go to a restaurant if you knew they had electronic ordering machines?

1 comment:

Um... Yum! said...

Bennigan's had a boca burger that looked and tasted so real, I kept saying in between bites, "Is this a veggie burger? I really don't think it is!"

I'm Asian, so I'm used to eating seaweed on various things other than sushi. And it wasn't until a couple years ago I ever heard the word "nori", so I don't like calling it that. :o)

I work at Starbucks and wonder how much easier it would be if people could just order their drinks like people order movie tickets at those kiosks. But then I remember most people are idiots and would probably mess it all up. I personally would eat at a restaurant where I ordered my food by computer, but for the general population, I don't think we're quite there yet.