Apparently, McDonalds recently tried to start an advertising campaign via Twitter which backfired spectacularly. The article itself is more about the attempt of good ol’ Micky-D’s to rebrand itself:

The goal, according to Neil Golden, the company’s chief marketing officer for its American restaurants, is to win over the holdouts. One way to do that is by improving the food itself. Another way is to change how we think about that food. “The consumer perception of the quality of our food is not where we want it to be,” Golden told me. “Listen, we’re serving 28 million people every single day; there are a lot of consumers that love what we’re serving. But we believe that they would come more frequently. We also believe that there are more people that would want to come — if they could feel better about the product.”

I think this paragraph sums up quite nicely the metaphorical hole the executives at McDonalds have stuck their heads in. It’s also really depressing to me, because people aren’t smart enough not to fall for it.

For my part, I don’t consider the items sold at McDonalds to be actual food, and I refuse to consume non-food items.

This is a pretty awesome story about a kid who took the initiative to start eating more healthily and exercise. Good on him!

But it was the student’s jeer that pushed him over the edge. As Marshall walked slowly into the house that day, he said, “Mom, let’s do the opposite of ‘Super Size Me’ ” — Morgan Spurlock’s documentary about a McDonald’s-only diet for 30 days — “and be healthy for a month. I’m tired of this.”

But even in the pandemonium of a dinner rush, even with orders and questions pouring in from all directions, Jesse Schenker, the 29-year-old chef, manages to stay in the zone.

There’s just one thing you don’t want to interrupt.

“If a server needs something from me, and I’m in the middle of an air-guitar lick,” he said, “I’m going to finish it before I respond.”

If air guitar isn’t your thing, you can also go to a hip-hop sandwich shop or a ice cream shop with different music in every room.

I’ve got a few of these lying around. Fortunately, not too many, though. You can read the full article here

Dennis Nyback, a film archivist in Portland, Ore., bought a commercial butter slicer at a thrift store. At the time, it seemed like a brilliant acquisition. “It was green enameled metal with stainless blades and had a sort of mass guillotine action,” he said. “A solid one-pound block of butter could be made into a few dozen pats with one fell swoop. I didn’t expect it to change my life, but I did expect that if I ever encountered a one-pound block of butter I would be prepared. That day never came.”

Really, all you have to have in your kitchen is a pot, a spatula, and a wooden spoon. Speaking of which, we need new spatulas… our old ones melted.

What about you? Any crazy kitchen purchases that you never use anymore?

We first discovered kohlrabi last summer as a part of our CSA.  It was a fun, alien-looking vegetable that we enjoyed getting to use in a variety of different ways.

This week, the New York Times has jumped in on our kohlrabi love.  I wouldn’t call it a cross between an octopus and a space capsule, but it does look like a funny green alien.  Since kohlrabi is getting back into season, you may want to consider trying out this slightly strange, but tasty, vegetable!

I think I want one of these:

You bake a pie, then you put it in a cake, then you decorate it as if you haven’t just done something really bizarre.

Find more details here.

Some interesting thoughts on the interplay between food and religion:

“The karmic load of killing one rabbit and one yak are the same: one life,” he said. “But you can feed a lot more people with a yak.”

Also, those sha momos sound delicious.

Yes please!

The NY Times ran an article earlier today on a pastry chef-turned upscale Mexican restaurant owner.  It sounds delicious, and like an interesting departure from the more traditional Mexican fare D and I enjoy.

Of course, the online menu does not list prices, which makes me a little bit nervous!  I suppose I’ll just have to add it to my wish list of restaurants.

There was an interesting article in the New York Times today about mindful eating – the process of slowing down while you eat to savor and enjoy the food more. It’s an interesting idea, and I wonder what would change if I spent more time really contemplating the food I eat!

Google does this once a month on their campus:

“Interestingly enough, a lot of the participants are the engineers, which pleases us very much,” said Olivia Wu, an executive chef at the company. “I think it quiets the mind. I think there is a real sense of feeling restored so that they can go back to the crazy pace that they came from.”

Maybe that would be good for me at work!

K’s mom sent us a link to the Global Table Adventure website. It’s a blog run by a woman in Oklahoma who’s decided to cook food from around the world; every week she lines up a series of posts about the cuisine she’ll be cooking that week:

1) Travel Tuesday – Overview of the cuisine
2) Menu Wednesday – Read what I’ll be cooking
3) Technique Thursday – We dig into an unusual dish
4) Fun Friday – Fun recipes, tidbits & polls
5) Monday Meal Review – Includes all recipes, photos, & reviews.

She also includes links to various cultural influences that are related to the food she’s eating. It’s a pretty interesting read!