Balance of Food

Missing menu prices means missed dining opportunities

You have a trusted friend in the food world. She recommends a particular chef. You decide to go to the Web site of the restaurant.

The menu looks pretty good in terms of dishes. You are blinded because they decided to use yellow and white in such a way where reading the menu gives you a headache.

Even with that terrible visual, you still see the menu and discover one intriguing missing element: prices.

How does a good chef, at least reportedly good chef, convey how outstanding that person is at their craft by putting prices on the menu? If you are so square that you insist on prices on a menu, then you're not cool enough to eat at that restaurant.

When I posted my response online, a woman did say that the menu at the restaurant has prices. I believe her. Then again, who is foolish enough to enter an establishment, especially with the whole mask wearing thing, to find out whether you can afford to eat at that establishment?

I like menus on the outside of an establishment whether I am in my hometown or on vacation. All those menus have prices.

I'm not trying to pick on the chef, restaurant, or the original source material from my friend. This isn't the only place to pull this stunt. Other places don't have prices; they do have better sense of color for an online menu.

"Market price" has been prominent on menus at fancy restaurants. Chances are you won't ask about any item with a "market price" but that isn't so bad because 1) you want the restaurant to challenge you a little bit and 2) over 95% of the menu's dishes have prices.

If everything is "market price," feel free to say that on the menu. The beer list has prices: looking forward to a $9 non-alcoholic dark amber beer.

Even if you have the $, you still may not want to eat there because you don't feel welcome.

The COVID-19 pandemic did a lot of damage to the restaurant industry. Large chains got lots of money in cheap loans. The smaller restaurants at a decent price point suffered the most damage.

One hopeful ray from the pandemic was that some high-end restaurants would try to be more humble. Nope. If anything, they have to sweat and work harder for the audience they covet: those people with so much money who don't care how much they spend on dinner.

Maybe they are getting better food at whatever prices. The blue crab salad looked tempting. The restaurant features "bucatini with bacon, jalapeno, and anchovy" and "saffron tagliatelle with dungeness crab and chili butter."

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I personally am so tired of cooking at home. I had an issue in one of the few times I did eat out with one of my regular places. The food I got was way below par.

Restaurants need to build more trust, not less. They may not be able to do more, but could improve the experience by not screwing up.

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Restaurants should worry if people change patterns as a result of the pandemic, because of money or adjusting to lifestyle changes of not dining inside. Our meal kits criticism still stands, but at least meal kits have prices.

The customer isn't always right but customers matter. Restaurants should keep that in mind.

Editor's note: We apologize for the horrible image from the online menu. You might not have believed how terrible it was without proof.

photo credit: this restaurant

Film review: Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain

They say you should never meet your heroes, how you will be disappointed in who they are as opposed to who we imagine them to be.

Roadrunner starts out as a film chronicling how Anthony Bourdain became famous. Even if Bourdain were still alive, this would be a great documentary subject. Bourdain, up until his 40s, led an interesting life that virtually no one knew about.

Kitchen Confidential. Then the videos started: A Cook's Tour. No Reservations (with The Layover). Parts Unknown. Each of those shows under different umbrellas and approaches, showing a more maturing Bourdain along the way. Given that this part of his life started when he was in his 40s, his work got more mature as the shows changed. You could argue they were all food and travel shows. He didn't eat that much in the first and third shows. Parts Unknown was about, as David Chang put it, Bourdain trying to be a better person.

Morgan Neville then steers the documentary boat into the curious yet futile question: "Why did Anthony Bourdain kill himself?" Neville asks the people around Bourdain and they gave their take. Ottavia, his second wife, gives her perspective. People talk about how devoted Bourdain was to his daughter, Ariane Busia-Bourdain.

There are the theories. Bourdain wanted to slow down but didn't know how to make that move. Bourdain's second marriage crumbled. Actor/director Asia Argento stepped in. Was she the reason?

A documentary should be judged on who doesn't get interviewed. Neville made a case for not interviewing Argento. We hear about the Hong Kong episode story. The looks on people's faces change when they talk about that episode. The one person who had an intriguing story about that episode was longtime cinematographer Zach Zamboni. Zamboni was fired during the shoot over a dispute between Zamboni and Argento, who ended up directing the episode.

Neville takes us down this path knowing there won't be a nice neat bow to the story of Bourdain. His addictive personality is on display. Artist David Choe says Bourdain is the only person who gave up heroin without treatment. What made Bourdain great on TV in his food travels was the addiction for something more. Most people making TV aren't getting better. The adaptation to different levels of Bourdain were part of that addiction. Bourdain got involved with jiujitsu in part because his wife competed in the sport.

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Neville has a good reputation as a documentary filmmaker. See the Academy Award winning 20 Feet from Stardom or Best of Enemies on Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley or Won't You Be My Neighbor? about Fred Rogers.

Being curious about why someone killed themselves is worthy of a documentary. Cutting corners to get to that point is a bad sign. The use of Bourdain's voice in an e-mail through AI is a terrible move for a documentary. You don't gain anything from the shortcut. Many other things that Bourdain did say are portrayed in a manipulative fashion.

If you are a fan of Anthony Bourdain and his shows, you know Bourdain has countless mentions of death, especially his own death, on the shows. This doesn't always mean suicide will happen but this is a clue to consider.

We don't learn a lot about Bourdain in the second half of the film, except that he had flaws.

"You don't want his legacy to come off as like somebody who succumbed to this darkness. That wasn't him. Like he created something that was so important — and I want — that really needs to be like — that is the legacy of his life. Not this stupid bullshit that he did at the end." — Lydia Tenaglia, co executive producer of Zero Point Zero Production.

The flaw in Roadrunner is that the film is much more about that "stupid bullshit."

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If you want to learn something about Anthony Bourdain, watch this film until it turns dark. Otherwise, watch No Reservations (we are partial to that version) or Parts Unknown.

BalanceofFood.com travel coverage

BalanceofFood.com film coverage

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain is available for rent. The film is scheduled to air again on CNN on Saturday at 10 pm Eastern.

video credit: YouTube/Focus Features
photo credit: Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain

Original Taste could be meaningful but not the way Coca-Cola uses those words

The Coca-Cola cans and bottles have had the tagline "Original Taste" for some time. There were layers of meetings to make sure the tagline fit what the company wants to convey. Focus groups saw several possibilities that weren't as impressive as "original taste." Multi-million dollar companies do not come up with "Original Taste" on a whim.

As an adjective, original can be defined as "present or existing from the beginning; first or earliest" or "created directly and personally by a particular artist; not a copy or imitation."

We know the first definition of original does not apply because the North American version of Coca-Cola contains high-fructose corn syrup instead of sugar. Also, the cocaine is missing. So "original taste" doesn't mean the initial recipe or even the recipe that lasted until the 1980s.

As a noun, original can mean "something serving as a model or basis for imitations or copies." Coca-Cola might find some solace here. Coca-Cola wasn't the first soft drink but did grow dominant in the early days of soda pop. Pepsi and RC came later though neither were trying to be imitations or copies. If you couldn't tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi or RC, then your palette isn't terribly picky or selective. You might literally not care which one you would be drinking.

Unfortunately for Coca-Cola, this is likely the definition meant by "original taste": "created directly and personally by a particular artist; not a copy or imitation."

Pepsi had a slogan many years ago that nothing quenches your thirst like a Pepsi. Sounds impressive. Like "original taste," this is a meaningless statement. You have patents on a distinct product so it's original in that there is nothing quite like your product.

Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and RC are all soda pop products but they are distinctively different. Not better, just different. Having original taste means nothing. Lemonade has "original taste" whether it is manufactured with high-fructose corn syrup or a child makes lemonade with real sugar with help from the parents, though the tastes are different.

Those meetings and focus groups broke down phrases to sound impressive and mean absolutely nothing.

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Passover 2022 begins on the evening of April 15. Kosher for Passover versions of soft drinks may be available in your area. This is a rite of spring for your humble narrator. The chase has involved Israeli Coca-Cola in the last few years since this is what we get in our area.

Both the K4P and Israeli versions cost more than the conventional high-fructose corn syrup. We have noted in the past that the cost of sugar is kept artificially high and that high-fructose corn syrup is subsidized with your federal tax dollars.

They are worth the cost because they have "original taste" in the sense of something unique. Most of the world drinks regular Coca-Cola made with sugar and doesn't have to go to the store at a certain time of year and pay more. They grab regular bottles.

North America is not the norm but the exception. For our Canadian readers, glucose-fructose is high-fructose corn syrup.

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Coca-Cola has an incredible story, a wonderful history as a product. Food is about storytelling but one of the greatest stories is silent. The Mexican Coca-Cola, Italian Coca-Cola, Danish Coca-Cola: they have the "original taste."

Your humble narrator wrote about 1642 Cola a number of years back. I don't get sucked in just because of a story but this story is rather cool.

Specialty soft drinks have "original taste" sometimes a little too original. High-fructose corn syrup versions of popular soft drinks aren't very original to the North American palette. You can't quite quench your thirst so you drink more of it. That is the hook, unfortunately.

You deserve better when soft drinks are involved. You might drink fewer of them given the costs. Soft drinks can be a treat when made well. Be more original and rethink soft drinks.

photo credit: Coca-Cola