Category: Food and Drink

Well, there are some, you will find Ralph’s all over Los Angeles.  But why aren’t there more?  (This query is posed here, here, and here, among other places.)  Factor #1 in my view is lack of cars.  Living in an inner city has its downsides, to say the least, but at least you don’t have to buy a car.  Yet the modern grocery store is designed for car transport, both how you get there and how you get the groceries away and of course the radius of advertising.  With fewer cars per capita the tendency is for smaller, more local stores, which is precisely what we see in poor neighborhoods.  Not surprisingly poor people are most likely to have cars in LA, and thus most likely to have grocery stores there as well.  For that matter real grocery stores are not all that common in wealthy but relatively carless parts of major cities, such as Manhattan.

Crime is surely a factor as well, what do you all think and what other natural experiments come to mind?

Tim Harford reports:

Caitlin Knowles Myers…with
her students as research assistants, staked out eight coffee shops in
the Boston area and watched how long it took men and women to be
served. Her conclusion: men get their coffee 20 seconds earlier than
women. (There is also evidence that black people wait longer than white
people, the young wait longer than the old, and the ugly wait longer
than the beautiful. But these effects are statistically not as
persuasive.)

This does not seem to reduce to greater complexity of drink for the female customers, read these clarifying remarks from the researcher.  One question I have is when the order counts as having started; in my family I am sure that the women spend more time ordering.  The simplest explanation, however, is that the staff feel more implicit psychological pressure to meet the needs of the male customers.  I’ve also found that indecisive behavior at the counter leads to slower service, I have one particular (male) friend in mind.  I am myself virtually always a decisive orderer.

Along not totally unrelated lines, here are new but not surprising results on which waitresses receive the biggest tips.

ETHNIC DINING TALK: Tuesday, October 30, Tyler Cowen, author of "Discover Your Inner
Economist," discusses "Every Meal Counts: How to Get the Best Food
Possible in Washington, D.C." and signs his book. Books will be for
sale. Free entry. 6:30 p.m. Cleveland Park Branch Library, 3310 Connecticut Ave. NW. 202-282-3072.

Of course you are encouraged to come…

When she said yes, he asked the more important question, would she attend a performance of the Black Watch, an international bagpipe and drum group, the next weekend at UT Tyler’s Cowen Center.

Here is the full but totally non-interesting story. 

On a less incorrect but still odd note, someone just built a column around this point:

There are some restaurant dishes that I order because they sound better than everything else on the menu, and there are some I order because they sound worse.  My reasoning goes like this: If a chef dares to offer something as unappealing as, say, a raw kale salad, chances are it’s fantastic.

Here is one hypothesis:

…some food scientists and market researchers think there is a more surprising reason for the broad nationwide shift toward bolder flavors: The baby boomers, that huge, youth-chasing, all-important demographic, are getting old. As they age, they are losing their ability to taste – and turning to spicier, higher-flavor foods to overcome their dulled senses.  Chiefly because of degenerating olfactory nerves, most aging people experience a diminished sense of taste, whether they realize it or not. But unlike previous generations, the nation’s 80 million boomers have broad appetites, a full set of teeth, and the spending power to shape the entire food market.

I’d be surprised if that explained more than five percent of what is going on.  Younger people are also preferring spicier food.  Western Europe has an older population, but I don’t see them (UK aside) falling for spicy food at a comparable rate as are Americans.  Nor does Naples, Florida have much spicy food outside of its Haitian community.  Instead America has more immigrants, and more restaurants run by immigrants.  Spicy foods are addictive.  Most importantly, spicy ethnic food is often better than what we had before, which indeed was usually horrible.  Sometimes the best explanation is the simplest one.

I might add that what is eaten is hardly very spicy at all, at least not to my palate.

Thanks to Michael Makowsky, a loyal MR reader, for the pointer.

1. Global milk prices have doubled over the last two years.

2. In some parts of the United States, milk is more expensive than gasoline.

3. There are reports of cows being stolen from Wisconsin dairy farms.

4. The rising demand for milk is coming mostly from developing nations; the average Chinese consumes six gallons of milk a year, up from two gallons in 2000.  China is now the world’s leading milk importer.

5. Parts of New Zealand are booming.

6. Only 7 percent of all milk commercially produced is traded across national borders.

7. Sufficiently high (market-driven) milk prices may render many milk price supports and subsidies irrelevant.

Here is the article (NYT, permalink may be pending but not yet).

Dunkin’ Donuts Going Free of Trans Fat

After attending dogfights it’s rumored that on some nights Michael Vick would continue his bloody activities by dining on cow’s flesh.  No word yet on whether prosecutors will be seeking additional prison time.

Hypotheses about economic complements may not seem cause for a fight, but I have encountered what I can only call schools of thought:

1. Wine
2. Spirits
3. Strawberries
4. A pinch of red chili powder
5. A quick swig of mineral water immediately afterwards

I advocate #4 and #5 only.  Strawberries are too rich and too strong in flavor, if it be a fruit I nominate a few bites of a pluot or a few grapes for succulence, both in advance of the chocolate only.

You will find meditations on this topic, and others, in Clay Gordon’s inspiring Discover Chocolate: The Ultimate Guide to Buying, Tasting, and Enjoying Fine Chocolate.

Readers, will you either vote or amend this list?

The subtitle is The Costs and Benefits of Alcohol Control, and the book (here is its home page) has more on the latter than the former.  The author, economist Philip J. Cook, produces a wide range of reasonable arguments that alcohol is too cheap on the supply side, given its social costs.

The quality of the argumentation is high, but perhaps I have too much of a libertarian closed mind (more or less) on the issue.  I hold the following views:

1. I don’t have an a priori belief in uniform rates of taxation, and if you twist my arm I’ll admit bad things should be taxed at higher rates than good things, at least provided we can avoid slippery slopes of ever-encroaching government paternalism.

2. Penalties for drunk driving should be much stricter.

3. I think the world would be a better place if most people simply stopped drinking, 100 percent plain, outright stopped.  Admittedly drink cross-subsidizes quality food, so if there is any loser it might be me.

4. For reasons of ethics and morality, I don’t think governments should regulate adult substance consumption.

5. I see some role for governments to regulate substance consumption to prevent spillover effects onto minors.

I do understand that #1, #4, and #5 are not fully consistent, but this mix of views still seems right to me.  And unless I see the world coming to an end through booze — and I don’t — I’m still stuck on #4, no matter how good Cook’s evidence and arguments.  Alcohol is but one issue in the age-old battle between liberty and tyranny, a fight which I see as more important in the longer run than sobriety vs. stimulants. 

I do worry about more powerful drugs or neurostimulators.  I am struck at how weak a temptation alcohol is, relative to what the future will bring.  In the meantime, if alcohol restrictions fail on the grounds of liberty, I guess I am back to my closed libertarian mind.

Here is a list of 100 unusual flavors, all for sale; my "favorite" is raw horseflesh ice cream.

The pointer is from www.geekpress.com.

The Washington Post covers my economic principles for finding good food.  Excerpt:

I’m sweating and furiously frustrated when I finally arrive, 30 minutes late, at the Hong Kong
Palace, an utterly nondescript Chinese restaurant in a Seven Corners
strip mall. Tyler Cowen is patiently reading when I arrive, unsurprised
that it took me so long to find it. He almost always likes the
hard-to-find joints best. The fact that Hong Kong Palace has an
unlisted phone number is, in Cowen’s eyes, another big plus.

An economist at George Mason University,
Cowen has rather unusual criteria for restaurant selection. He doesn’t
first look at the menu, the ambiance or the reviews.  Being an
economist, he thinks about the rental market, property taxes,
competition and clientele.  "All of us already act like economists," he
said, digging into a plate of Chengdu dumplings in a black vinegar sauce.  "We just have to think about what we already know about the world and apply it to dining."

I liked this article very much.  Elsewhere here is an interview with me in MacLean’s, the Canadian magazine.  What is it they say about them spelling your name right?

Addendum: Arnold Kling reports on my Bloomberg podcast, which I can’t find on the web either; maybe try here.

6653 Little River Turnpike, #H, Annandale, VA, 703-750-1424, www.bonchon.com.  Is it the best fried chicken I’ve had?  I didn’t even mind the forty-minute wait, though now I know to call ahead, as the Koreans do.  Get it with both sauces – soy and garlic, and hot –and be sure to ask for the kimchi.

Here is the NYT on Korean fried chicken.  It’s also healthier than you think: crunchy, spicy, and non-greasy.