Category: Food and Drink

My Conversation with Rebecca F. Kuang

by  Tyler Cowen in

Here is the audio, video, and transcript, here is the episode summary:

Rebecca F. Kuang just might change the way you think about fantasy and science fiction. Known for her best-selling books Babel and The Poppy War trilogy, Kuang combines a unique blend of historical richness and imaginative storytelling. At just 27, she’s already published five novels, and her compulsion to write has not abated even as she’s pursued advanced degrees at Oxford, Cambridge, and now Yale. Her latest book, Yellowface, was one of Tyler’s favorites in 2023.

She sat down with Tyler to discuss Chinese science-fiction, which work of fantasy she hopes will still be read in fifty years, which novels use footnotes well, how she’d change book publishing, what she enjoys about book tours, what to make of which Chinese fiction is read in the West, the differences between the three volumes of The Three Body Problem, what surprised her on her recent Taiwan trip, why novels are rarely co-authored, how debate influences her writing, how she’ll balance writing fiction with her academic pursuits, where she’ll travel next, and more.

Here is one excerpt:

COWEN: Why do you think that British imperialism worked so much better in Singapore and Hong Kong than most of the rest of the world?

KUANG: What do you mean by work so much better?

COWEN: Singapore today, per capita — it’s a richer nation than the United States. It’s hard to think, “I’d rather go back and redo that whole history.” If you’re a Singaporean today, I think most of them would say, “We’ll take what we got. It was far from perfect along the way, but it worked out very well for us.” People in Sierra Leone would not say the same thing, right?

Hong Kong did much better under Britain than it had done under China. Now that it’s back in the hands of China, it seems to be doing worse again, so it seems Hong Kong was better off under imperialism.

KUANG: It’s true that there is a lot of contemporary nostalgia for the colonial era, and that would take hours and hours to unpack. I guess I would say two things. The first is that I am very hesitant to make arguments about a historical counterfactual such as, “Oh, if it were not for the British Empire, would Singapore have the economy it does today?” Or “would Hong Kong have the culture it does today?” Because we don’t really know.

Also, I think these broad comparisons of colonial history are very hard to do, as well, because the methods of extraction and the pervasiveness and techniques of colonial rule were also different from place to place. It feels like a useless comparison to say, “Oh, why has Hong Kong prospered under British rule while India hasn’t?” Et cetera.

COWEN: It seems, if anywhere we know, it’s Hong Kong. You can look at Guangzhou — it’s a fairly close comparator. Until very recently, Hong Kong was much, much richer than Guangzhou. Without the British, it would be reasonable to assume living standards in Hong Kong would’ve been about those of the rest of Southern China, right? It would be weird to think it would be some extreme outlier. None others of those happened in the rest of China. Isn’t that close to a natural experiment? Not a controlled experiment, but a pretty clear comparison?

KUANG: Maybe. Again, I’m not a historian, so I don’t have a lot to say about this. I just think it’s pretty tricky to argue that places prospered solely due to British presence when, without the British, there are lots of alternate ways things could have gone, and we just don’t know.

Interesting throughout.

Ben Casnocha on food procedures in Tokyo

by  Tyler Cowen in
  • No matter how many people sit at a table, generally only one menu will be put down at the table, for the group to share. What could explain this cultural norm?
  • There’s a bag container next to each table to put your briefcase or bag or jacket. Without fail — a bag container. Is it to keep your individual bag clean? Or to keep the floor clean and tidy for the collective aesthetic?
  • Even in meals where they offer western cutlery, I encountered multiple instances of forks eschewed in favor of spoons. Spoons to eat a salad, for example. Always few knives — not as dramatic as in Singapore (which never offered knives) but still scarce.
  • Too many tourists stress about finding “the best” ramen place, the best sushi, the best whatever. Don’t do that. Just wander around and walking into random restaurants that seem popular with locals and using Google Translate to scan the menu. Rolling the dice works in Tokyo.
  • Many casual restaurants have table dividers to allow single patrons to eat alone without having to make eye contact with anyone else at a shared table. There’s something a bit eerie about a restaurant full of people — mostly businessmen — slurping their noodles in otherwise silence, head down, talking to nobody, even as they all share a table.

Here is the full post, mostly about Tokyo more generally.

Comayagua, Honduras

by  Tyler Cowen in

Comayagua is one of the very nicest and most classic of Central American towns.  It is safe (yes, this is Honduras), walkable, delightful, and comes to life later in the day in the main square.  It is full of colonial buildings and some churches.  I didn’t see any North American tourists, and the surrounding countryside is lovely.  Population is about 100,000.

A few years ago Honduras switched its main international airport, so a flight to the capital Tegulcigalpa actually brings you much closer to Comayagua — visit there instead!  Here is Wikipedia on the city.

As for food, go to Hotel Helechos (central in town, but oddly no one has heard of it), walk out to your right and immediately there is an amazing baleadas stand.  The pupuseria on the corner of main square is excellent.  In general, Honduras is the country where the quality difference between roadside and street food, compared to the restaurants, perhaps is greatest.  And it doesn’t favor the restaurants.

Uber and Traffic Fatalities

by  Alex Tabarrok in

Abstract: Previous studies of the effect of ridesharing on traffic fatalities have yielded inconsistent, often contradictory conclusions. In this paper we revisit this question using proprietary data from Uber measuring monthly rideshare activity at the Census tract level. Using these more detailed data, we find a consistent negative effect of ridesharing on traffic fatalities. Impacts concentrate during nights and weekends and are robust across a range of alternative specifications. Overall, our results imply that ridesharing has decreased U.S. traffic fatalities by 5.4% in areas where it operates. Based on conventional estimates of the value of statistical life the annual life-saving benefits are $6.8 billion. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that these benefits are of similar magnitude to producer surplus captured by Uber shareholders or consumer surplus captured by Uber riders.

The authors, Michael Anderson and Lucas Davis, note that alcohol involvement is reported in approximately 30% of fatal crashes, which is an amazingly high number unless you think a lot of people are driving drunk. I am reminded of a clever paper by Levitt and Porter who use the proportion of crashes involving two drunk drivers to estimate that it is not that lots of people are driving drunk but rather that “drivers with alcohol in their blood are seven times more likely to cause a fatal crash” and “legally drunk drivers pose a risk 13 times greater than sober drivers.” Thus, substituting a sober driver for a drunk driver is a very good thing and so it’s plausible to me that Uber significantly reduces traffic fatalities.

Consider this a public service announcement.

“Around since xxxx”

by  Tyler Cowen in

From a reader, Matt:

Is “Since 19XX” a positive or negative signal for a restaurant? I passed a BBQ restaurant in Denver recently with such a sign. If it’s been around so long but is good, why haven’t I heard of it before? On the other hand, it’s seemingly a positive market signal?

I view that as mostly a negative signal.  It does put the restaurant in the top half of the distribution, so if you don’t know where else to go, OK.  But such restaurants are rarely excellent or on any number of cutting edges.  They are used to serving large numbers of longstanding customers in a pretty reliable manner.  Wonderful.  Sadly, most people have OK but not great taste.  And such restaurants self-consciously think of themselves as a “franchise,” perhaps a bit frozen in time, in a way to be admired by 67-year-olds.  Fine.

For the best meals, mostly you should look elsewhere.

p.s. such restaurants also raise the interesting theoretical question of whether a time horizon can be too long.  Arguably the most interesting restaurants will end up obsolete, or in some other other way lose their unique balance or capabilities.  They just want to be great for a few years, and indeed they can be.  The restaurant that sticks around for 57 years is one that makes “pizza” at a “6.7 on a scale of 10” level of quality.  Eh.

My first Paraguayan restaurant, and a test of GPT-4

by  Tyler Cowen in

That was the menu from Tal Cual!, in Buenos Aires, the first Paraguayan food I have had.  I showed GPT-4 that menu and asked why there were no posted prices on it.  It responded that the restaurant wanted to economize on the cost of price changes, and afterwards mentioned a fixed price menu as an alternative explanation.  I then added that I was in Argentina, and would that help improve the answer any?  GPT responded that high inflation was likely the reason why the restaurant might want to economize on the cost of frequent price changes.  Not bad.

A fun time was had by all.

Salta (and Jujuy) notes

by  Tyler Cowen in

The food is excellent.  Don’t worry about choosing the right restaurant, just try to eat the simple things.  Corn products.  Beans.  Baked goods such as empanadas.  Don’t waste your time on the steak.  The food stalls in the Mercado Municipal are a good place to start, and many items  there cost fifty cents to a dollar.  The “sopa de mani” (peanut soup) is especially good, and almost identical to what you find in Bolivia.

The overall vibe in Salta reminds me of both northern Mexico and the older parts of the American Southwest.  And the adjacent parts of Bolivia.  It is hot, the cities are surrounded by beautiful scenery, and it still all feels rather wild.  Salta is also much safer than Buenos Aires, and you don’t see many beggars here.  In B.A. they are now asking for food rather than money.

There’s not much to do in Salta, as the central sights in town are the two mummified remains of young Incan girls in the archaeological museum.  They are memorable, as it feels like they are staring right back at you.

Spending time here will cure you of utopianism, and also of pessimism.  Whatever issues you might think are really important, most people here really don’t care about them or even know about them.

American brands at the retail level are not to be seen.  Nor will you run across Chinese or Indian merchants.  Perhaps a Syrian or Lebanese is to be found, but not in any great numbers.

Tyrone is accompanying me, and I asked him what he thinks.  As you might expect, he had only stupid rudeness in response.  Tyrone said that northern Argentina is the true essence of the Argentinean nation, and that everyone interested in Argentina should visit here.  In fact, having visited North Macedonia, he wishes to rename the country South Bolivia — were they not once part of the same Viceroyalty?  Is it not enough to share the same soup?  Do they not have broadly the same accent, devoid of all that B.A. slurring?  Was not the country born here in the north?  That is where the decisive battle for national independence was fought and won.  Do we not all agree with theories of deep roots?  It is not just who moves to your nation, but it is about how and where your nation was founded.  And for Argentina that is in the north, and with violence and corruption and economic decline.  Tyrone even wishes to hand over the rest of Patagonia to the Chileans, so that Argentina may better recognize its true self.

In the twisted view of Tyrone, the creation of the modernist city of Brasilia was a big success.  The real failure, hermetically hidden by some charming Parisian and Barcelona-style architecture, was the attempted modernist outpost of Buenos Aires, an immature and underdeveloped excrudescence from the real nation of chocro, horse saddles and the quebrada.  It tricked a few Johnny-come-lately migrants during the early 20th century, and neglected to tell them they still would be ruled by the ideas and the norms of the north.

Imagine thinking that you could govern a nation with high modernism and Freudian psychoanalysis — what folly!  And now, Tyrone tells us, we have the Milei revolution, attempting to replace one Viennese modernism — that of Freud — with the Viennese modernist revolution of Mises.  Good luck with that one, Tyrone says.  What kind of fool would think that the future of South America would be determined by a war across different Viennese modernisms?  Those mummified corpses still will rule the day, whether or not the feds balance the budget in the short term.  Desiccated ever-young girls are in perpetual deficit, no matter how the daily fiscal accounts may read.

I had to stop Tyrone right then and there, as he was explaining why the current hyperinflation probably was a good thing, as the only path to true dollarization and at least one symbolic unification with North America.  Tyrone was shouting that such symbolic unification nonetheless was impossible, and thus the corpses had brought in Milei to restore fiscal sanity and prevent dollarization and thus protect the true Incan and Andean nation.

Such thoughts are not allowed on Marginal Revolution, and so I am now trying to persuade Tyrone to visit Iguassu, in the hope that I can induce him to take a quick swim in those falls…

I hope the rest of you will visit northern Argentina nonetheless, and put all that nonsense aside.  The empanadas await you.

My Conversation with Fuchsia Dunlop

by  Tyler Cowen in

Here is the audio, video, and transcript, conducted over a long meal at Mama Chang restaurant in Fairfax.  Here is the episode summary:

As they dined, the group discussed why the diversity in Chinese cuisine is still only just being appreciated in the West, how far back our understanding of it goes, how it’s represented in the Caribbean and Ireland, whether technique trumps quality of ingredients, why certain cuisines can spread internationally with higher fidelity, what we can learn from the different styles in Indian and Chinese cooking, why several dishes on the table featured Amish ingredients, the most likely mistake people will make when making a stir fry, what Lydia has learned managing an empire of Chinese restaurants, Fuchsia’s trick for getting unstuck while writing, and more.

Joining Tyler, Fuchsia, and Lydia around the table were Dan Wang, Rasheed Griffith, Fergus McCullough, and Sam Enright.

Here is one excerpt:

WANG: Yes, that’s right. If I can ask a follow-up question on this comparison between India and China. Maybe this is half a question also for Tyler. Why do we associate Indian cuisine so much more with long simmers, whereas Chinese cuisine — of course, it is a little bit of everything, as Fuchsia knows so well, but it is often a little bit more associated with quick fries. What is the factor endowment here of these two very big countries, very big civilizations having somewhat divergent paths, as we imagine, with culinary traditions?

DUNLOP: That’s a really interesting question. It’s hard to answer because I don’t really know anything about Indian food. I did have a really interesting conversation with an Indian who came on my tour to Yunnan earlier this year because I was speculating that one of the reasons that Chinese food is so diverse is that the Chinese are really open-minded, with very few taboos. Apart from Muslims eating halal food and some Buddhists not eating meat, there’s a great adventurous open-mindedness to eating.

Whereas in India, you have lots of taboos and religious and ritual restrictions. That’s one reason that you would think it would be a constraint on the creativity of Indian food. But this Indian I was talking to, who’s a food specialist — he reckoned that the restrictions actually forced people to be more creative. He was arguing that Indian food had all the conditions for diversity that Chinese does.

In terms of cooking methods, it’s hard to say. Again, I don’t know about Indian food, but the thing about China is that there’s been this intense thoughtfulness about food, really, for a very long time. You see it in descriptions of food from 2,000 years ago and more.

In the Song Dynasty, this incredible restaurant industry in places like Hangzhou, and innovation and creativity. I suppose that when you are thoroughly interested in food like the Chinese and thinking about it creatively all the time, you end up having a whole plethora of different cooking methods. That’s one of the striking things about Chinese cuisine, that you have slow-cooked stews and simmered things and steamed things and also stir-frying. That might explain why several different methods have achieved prominence.

COWEN: Before I comment on that, Lydia, on the new dish, please tell us.

The dishes are explained as they were consumed, the meal was excellent, of course the company too.  A very good episode, highly rated for all lovers of Chinese food.  And here is Fuchsia’s new book, Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food, self-recommending.  And here are previous MR mentions of Fuchsia, including links to my two earlier CWTs with her.

EconEats — AI restaurant recommendations

by  Tyler Cowen in

From Josh Knox:

The search tool I’ve always wanted – I trained a custom GPT to recommend restaurants based on the rules from [Tyler Cowen’s] An Economist Gets Lunch.

https://chat.openai.com/g/g-5uQtkCDiA-econeats

It’s sort of a retroactive EconGoat project:)

I wrote about the experience on my blog.

https://iamjoshknox.com/2023/12/06/econeats-an-ai-dining-guide/

The Swiss convexify the choice set

by  Tyler Cowen in

Could you really go for exactly one McDonald’s Chicken McNugget right about now? Well then, hop over to Switzerland and chow down!

Working with TBWA, local McD’s are tapping into a mathematics-themed meme by offering a single-McNugget selection to celebrate the menu staple’s 40th birthday.

Fans love to indulge in jokey theorems about the breaded bites of bliss. There’s also intense competition over who gets the final McNugget.

This campaign goofs on the whole numerical bit. Plus, per press materials, “Everyone gets the last nugget.”

…Each special Nug sells for 1.20 Swiss francs while supplies last. A regular box of four costs 4.80.

Here is the full story, via Benjamin Schneider.

Pharmaceutical Price Controls and the Marshmallow Test

by  Alex Tabarrok in

The pharmaceutical market is in turmoil. On the one hand we have what looks like a golden age of medicine with millions of lives saved by COVID vaccines, a leap in mRNA technology, excellent new obesity and blood sugar drugs, breakthroughs in cancer treatments and more. On the other hand, the Inflation Reduction Act includes the most extensive price controls on pharmaceuticals we have ever seen in the United States.

In Washington-speak the “Inflation Reduction Act” requires HHS to “negotiate” drug prices for Medicare Part D and Part B to establish a maximum “fair” price. In reality there is no negotiation–firms who refuse to negotiate are hit with huge taxes. The “negotiation,” if you want to call it that, is “your money or your life” and fairness has little to do with it. The IRA also requires very costly inflation rebates, i.e. a price control/tax. In essence, the IRA is a taking; for drugs with a large Medicare market it is similar to abrogating patents to 9 years for small molecule drugs and 13 years for biologics. For the included drugs there will be a significant reduction in revenues. Moreover, we don’t yet know whether the plan will be extended to more and more drugs. There is significant uncertainty affecting the entire market. What will be situation in 10 years? Will the US be like Europe?

Our government is failing the marshmallow test, big time.

Reduced revenues mean less R&D. The value of extending life is very high and so in my view medical R&D is underprovided. Thus, price controls are taking us in the wrong direction.

The positive effects of price controls are immediate and easy to see: Prices are reduced.

The negative effects of price controls take time and are harder to see. Namely:

  • Fewer drugs for Medicare market.
  • Less research on post-approval indications and confirmatory trials.
  • Reduced incentive for generics to enter quickly.
  • Most importantly: Less R&D spending leading to fewer new drugs, a reduced pharmaceutical armory, lower life expectancy and higher morbidity. By one calculation, ~135 fewer new drugs through to 2039 (see also here and here and here and here).
  • Fewer new drugs means more spending on physicians and hospitals so in the long run price controls may not even save money! (Most prescriptions are for generics. Drugs fall greatly in price when they go generic but physicians and hospitals never go generic!)

Price controls are a classic example of political myopia. Price controls, like rent controls and deficit financing, have modest benefits now and big future costs and thus they are supported by politicians who want to be elected now. Unfortunately, current citizens don’t forecast the future well and future citizens don’t have a vote so it’s easy to create big future costs without engaging an opposition.

The emergence of groundbreaking pharmaceuticals and the increasing implementation of price controls are probably related trends. Everyone wants the great new pharmaceuticals without paying for them. We need to think more long-term–we have much more to gain from a continuing flow of new pharmaceuticals than from lower prices on the last generation. Don’t forget that children who fail the marshmallow test do less well later in life. Well, our government is failing the marshmallow test, big time.

Pharmaceutical price controls driven by myopia and the failure to delay gratification are greatly harming future patients.

My Conversation with Harriet Karimi Muriithi

by  Tyler Cowen in

This is another CWT bonus episode, recorded in Tatu City, Kenya, outside of Nairobi.  Harriet is a 22-year-old waitress.  Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Here is the episode summary:

Harriet is a 22-year-old hospitality professional living and working in Tatu City, a massive mixed-used development spearheaded by Jennings. Harriet grew up in the picturesque foothills of Mount Kenya before moving to the capital city as a child to pursue better schooling. She has witnessed Nairobi’s remarkable growth firsthand over the last decade. An ambitious go-getter, Harriet studied supply chain management but and wishes to open her own high-end restaurant.

In her conversation with Tyler, Harriet opens up about her TikTok hobby, love of fantasy novels, thoughts on improving Kenya’s education system, and how she leverages AI tools like ChatGPT in her daily life, the Chinese influence across Africa, the challenges women face in village life versus Nairobi, what foods to sample as a visitor to Kenya, her favorite musicians from Beyoncé to Nigerian Afrobeats stars, why she believes technology can help address racism, her Catholic faith and church attendance, how COVID-19 affected her education and Kenya’s recovery, the superstitions that persist in rural areas, the career paths available to Kenya’s youth today, why Nollywood movies captivate her, the diversity of languages and tribes across the country, whether Kenya’s neighbors impact prospects for peace, what she thinks of the decline in the size of families, why she enjoys podcasts about random acts of kindness, what infrastructure and lifestyle changes are reshaping Nairobi, if the British colonial legacy still influences politics today, and more.

Here is one excerpt:

COWEN: How ambitious are you?

MURIITHI: On a scale of 1 to 10, I will say an 8.5.

This episode is best consumed in combination with the episode with the village elder Githae Gitinji.  The contrast between the two perspectives is startling.  And here is my CWT episode with Stephen Jennings, concerning Tatu City itself.