Five on Food: Articles from the Wednesday Dining Pages
Posted by melissamccart on November 14, 2007
1) McDonald’s to Take On Seattle’s Best. Chicago Tribune. McDonald’s joins the specialty coffee market by rolling out lattes, cappuccinos, and mochas nationally. The chain expects the new line will garner $125,000 per restaurant per year.
“McDonald’s push into specialty coffees comes after the runaway success of its premium coffee introduced in early 2006. The richer tasting brew has boosted McDonald’s vital breakfast business, and it has won accolades from Consumer Reports for its taste and value.”
Just because Consumer Reports ranked it highly, will it matter? Locally, the Post’s coffee taste test earlier this year ranked Starbuck’s last and that didn’t seem to break too many habits. It’ll be interesting to see whether their coffee will lure people from the Starbucks crowd. I think the guilty pleasure of the fries are too much of a temptation. Want to try it out? Locally, it’s at Dulles. . . .
2) Locavore: Word of the Year. Boston Globe. The Oxford American Dictionary made the announcement earlier this week. Where’d it come from?
It certainly was a word we saw everywhere this year; it spread like wildfire. According to the Oxford University Press blog, the word was coined just two years ago, by these folks.
3) Smooth and Sophisticated Shades of Pale. Los Angeles Times. Nice try, but trying to make celeriac, cipollini onions, and parnips glam is like trying to make plumbing sexy.
4) Chefs’ High Hopes, Low Pay Leave Restaurants Starved for Help. San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, like Washington, suffers a shortage of chefs in the kitchen, though for a bigger city, the problem may be a bit worse.
5) This Holiday, Take Your Pick. Washington Post. The Post offers traditional recipes and updated twists on old favorites in today’s Thanksgiving edition.
