As CNN’s Candy Crowley, the debate moderator, was delivering
her opening remarks, a dark blue strip at screen bottom
displayed the question: “Should the electoral college be
abolished?” and displayed live, shifting percentile results
as viewers clicked “Yes,” “No” or “Don’t Know.” A
moment later, another question: “Do you think journalists
are generally biased?”
Taste of AmericaWhat Happened to the American Middle-Class
Meal?
Wither goes our economy, so too goes our cuisine
By Josh Ozersky | @OzerskyTV | October 17, 2012 |
Wither goes our economy, so too goes our cuisine
By Josh Ozersky | @OzerskyTV | October 17, 2012 |
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Steven Valenti / Waterbury Republican-American / APOzersky's
Steven Valenti / Waterbury Republican-American / APOzersky's
latest book, Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, was
published in May 2012. His videos about food and gastronomy
can be seen on Ozersky.TV.
Living in a big city, as I do, it isn’t hard for me to spend
Living in a big city, as I do, it isn’t hard for me to spend
a lot on dinner. One big meal, and you can find yourself over
$200 poorer, just for two people. Of course, it isn’t hard
for me to spend very little on dinner either. I got fried
pork chops and pork fried rice sent to me from the local
Chinese takeout last night, and the whole meal cost me
something like nine dollars. What is hard to get is a meal
for $50 or so, and that seemingly innocuous fact speaks to an
insidious trend not just in the food world.
(MORE: The Myth of Bootstrapping)
Michael Whiteman, the restaurant industry guru who sends out
a list of coming restaurant trends each year, calls this
“dumbelling.” When Whiteman (whom I know well) first wrote
about the trend, he had fast food in mind – in particular
the simultaneous drift towards “premium” items on one side
of the menu, and ultra-cheap “value” items on the other. At
McDonalds and other burger chains, the marquee burgers are
edging upward to $6 or even more; meanwhile, unspeakably
gnarly, $1 burgers occupy the bargain basement. It’s not
just at McDonalds that this sinister tendency plays out;
dumbelling is happening in the culture as a whole, with a
Funyun economy existing for the poor, and an heirloom tomato
one for the prosperous.