There's a reason most restaurants keep the kitchen doors closed -- and it's not just because it's so hot back there.
It can be tough for restaurateurs to turn a profit and Slashfood has uncovered some of the ultra-dirty deeds even the best restaurants commit in order to pinch pennies.
Read on for 10 true stories about the subtle, sneaky and sometimes downright disgusting ways restaurants cheat to save a buck -- and how you might be paying the price.
Enfant terrible (bad boy) of French fashion Jean Paul Gaultier has designed his own glass Evian bottles, due to be released in 2009. Secretly? I love this. They have pretty snowflakes. Other reasons:
I can't afford very many Jean Paul Gaultier things, and here we have a solution for when I need to feel fancy and also need to pay rent.
They are a great host's gift for when you're going to a dinner party at the home of non-drinkers.
Glass bottles, so, you know, your insides don't get Saran Wrap'd.
A case of Christian Lacroix (current featured designer) Evian bottles is $118 on the website, so I expect the Gaultier bottles will be around the same price.
Seven special Evian Haute Couture Bottles will also be made, and auctioned off to benefit the Evian Water Protection Institute. Click here for more information.
For a while now, bottled water has been both prevalent and controversial -- whether prompting discussions of the differences (or lack thereof) between bottled and tap water, or reminding us of the extreme waste involved with neverending hordes of plastic water bottles.
Of course, that means that this is the perfect time to get flavored bottled water for our dogs -- they won't live long enough to see the impact! Did you know that there is a brand called FortiFido that offers flavored waters to not only hydrate your canine, but also help their bones, breath, joints, and skin?
Now I'm all for a little perk for man's best friend, but must we encourage more waste when it would be so very easy to offer this stuff as powder, soluble tablets, or gel to be put in the water of your choice? Think of Fido's children, and his children's children!
There has lately been a lot of negative pressure on bottled water producers. A lot of attention is being focused on the environmental impact of the bottles and transportation, as well as the possibility of wasting a natural resource. Environmental groups and government officials alike have been working to get consumers to drink tap water from reusable containers.
The three biggest bottled water producers in England have gotten together to form the Natural Hydration Council to fight back. One goal the Council has set for itself is "to undertake new research and communicate the facts to ensure fully informed consumer choices."
According to the article, the European bottled water market has actually grown over the last few years and is expected to stay healthy, so the Natural Hydration Council seems to be more of a preemptive strike and more of a response to what's happening in the US. What do you think of the new bottled water council?
I think it's so strange that a tobacco company is making a supposedly breath freshening bottled water. That's what a Japanese firm is doing, though.
According to Trends in Japan, Japan Tobacco has come up with this product, which is geared for men (it actually has "for men" printed on the labeling). I guess all the cigarette smoking is causing a nation-wide masculine bad breath crisis. Hmm, I guess Japan Tobacco wants to be the solution as well as the problem.
I guess this situation is not so strange after all. Do know of any other companies with problem/solution products?
There is a book that came out recently about our obsession with bottled water called Botllemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It. In it, the author talks about our reliance on bottled water and how tap water is generally as pure or more pure than bottled water.
Americans are getting away from bottled water, but it isn't because of this new book. Apparently bottled water is just too expensive, and in an economic downturn it's one of those luxury items that gets cut. This report from CNN.com interviews several people who have switched to tap water as well as a few calculations of how much you can save by cutting out bottled water.
The report also briefly mentions the environmental aspect of this trend. Refusing to buy bottled water helps cut down on the plastic bottles, which we've been told for years is what we need to do. Are you cutting back or cutting out bottled water for economic reasons?
Now that we've seen the paper cup that isn't a paper cup in order to reduce waste, how about plastic bottles that aren't plastic bottles? Italian design house Seletti has created glass water bottles made to look like the plastic water bottles we use then dump. Because they're glass, I doubt they're meant for us to throw into our backpacks and take with us, so they don't necessarily help us reduce our waste of portable plastic bottled water, but at a holding capacity of 1 liter each, they're great for serving water or other beverages at the table or bar.
Everyone who eats out in restaurants has their list of pet peeves. My biggest is when waiters rush me though my meal.
AOL Food has a list of the 11 most annoying restaurant trends. I'm not sure if some of these are even "trends" or if they're just long-held policies that restaurants have had, like the recitation of menu specials. But some of these are spot on, such as the trend to add "tini" to the end of so many drink names and upselling. Luckily I don't eat in restaurants that have a guy who walks around with a baseball bat-sized pepper mill. Just put a normal-sized one on the table and I'll be happy.
I always feel weird about "taste testing" bottled waters because to me, all water tastes like...water. Sure there are subtle variations that are borne out of where the water originates, if it was bottled at the source, and even the type of packaging it's in, but to me, these are normally undetectable.
What I'm trying to say is you should most definitely take my "review" here with a trace amount of sodium.
I wasn't sure how to feel about Tasmanian Rain because it's touted as bottled rain water. Where I live, if you drink rain water, you'll probably erode the lining of your intestines (I live in Los Angeles). However, the Tasmanian Rain water is collected in Tasmania Australia, "The Edge of the World," where the air is the purest in world. Thats' quite a claim, but the promise is that the air has been scientifically proven to be the purest in the world because it crosses three oceans by the winds of the Antarctic and never touches the ground before it's collected.
Hey, if the Tasmanian Devil has that much energy, the water there must be good!
One of my worst habits, or lack of habit, to be more precise, is drinking enough water. Now that it's on my list of "Make sure you do this," along with taking vitamins, eating more fiber, and cutting down on table salt, you know I'm going to go to my usual OCD addictive extreme and drink too much water.
Sportline's Hyrdo Water Bottle is like a portable water drinking coach that reminds you to drink water because you're carrying it with you, and tells you how much water you really need with a built-in "hydration calculator." Based on your height and weight, you may find that the optimal amount may not even be 8 to 10 glasses. The "Sip Tracker" feature can track how much water you're taking in over the course of the day, so you don't over- or underdo it.
Available from the HydraCoach website for $29.95. For that much cash for a water bottle, you better believe I'll be making good use of it!
Growing up in Portland, OR, when it came to drinking water, we were pretty lucky. The water that came out of the tap was clear and tasty. One of the hardest things to adjust to when I moved to Philadelphia was the fact that the water that came out of my kitchen sink didn't taste too great. For a while I bought bottled water, but my bank account couldn't handle that expense and I didn't like the amount of plastic I generated, especially living in an apartment building with sketchy recycling practices. It also felt wrong to me to buy bottled water, when I live in one of the few countries in the world where the tap water is pretty much universally safe for general consumption.
It appears that all across the country, upscale restaurants are making similar choices, leaving behind the bottled water and serving filtered still or carbonated water. Serious Eats has a nice round-up of recent establishments that are turning to the tap and choosing not serve bottled water, despite the financial sacrifice it entails.
Do you drink bottled water? Are you someone who won't drink water unless it's bottled? Do you only drink a certain brand of bottled water because it's chic, or trendy, or in some way is an extension of who you are?
You might be a water snob.
But then again, you might be pooh-pooh'd by a new breed of water snobs - those who won't drink anything but tap water.
Slate recently published an interesting article about reverse water snobbery, in which people are shunning the energy-wasting, eco-unfriendly bottled water for plain old tap water. Restaurants like Chez Panisse in Berkeley have stopped serving fancy, expensive bottled water in favor of filtered municipal tap water.
I'll have to admit, though I hadn't really thought much about the ecological impact of drinking bottled water, I usually don't. I just think it' a ridiculous waste of money.
Who says you have to wait til January 1 to make resolutions?
Below are eight foods I resolve to eat this summer (and beyond) and stuff I resolve not to eat. Some I've chosen because they're good for me (like #1), some I've chosen because, well, I just want to eat/drink them (#8). What about you?
1. Water. Believe it or not, I don't drink that much water, one of the healthiest things you really need. I drink it, but it's usually in the form of tea, diet soda, or fat free milk. It's time to get back to drinking water straight. It's good for you.
We certainly don't need yet another sports or juice or vitamin-enhanced water out there on the market, but according to its makers, Viz isn't even in that category of beverages. It's "an entirely new beverage category."
Viz has a patented cap design, the VizCap, that contains a sealed, moisture-free chamber filled with the ingredients. Apparently, the drink is better than other nutrition-enhanced drinks because keeping the ingredients separate extends the life of the potency of the vitamins and minerals. When ready to drink, you push down on the cap, which releases the effervescent little balls into the liquid. It's kind of like Alka-seltzer, I guess, but as a drink.
For the past couple of years, there has been a growing interest in getting local foods whenever possible, largely because it is perceived as helping the local economy, being better for the environment and better for your health (assuming the local food is organic, etc., not factory-farmed). There is one food - a drink, actually, that has strongly resisted this trend, where "'distance and exoticism are marketed as advantages": bottled water. Fiji, one of the more expensive store brands, is now the number 2 selling premium bottled water in the US.
At $1.50 and up per bottle, Fuji is not cheap. Some will say that a thing is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it, but others wonder how much the water is really worth. A reader asked Triple Pundit what the true cost of a bottle of Fuji water was. Sustainability Engineer Pablo Päster responded, calculating the (approximate) production and materials costs of a 1L bottle, travel/shipping expenses for shipping both full and empty bottles and, of course, the water itself. In the end, it comes down to a cost of approximately $.22 per bottle, leaving a $1.28 (or more) profit for the manufacturer and retailer.
Everyone who eats out in restaurants has their list of pet peeves. My biggest is when waiters rush me though my meal.
Growing up in Portland, OR, when it came to drinking water, we were pretty lucky. The water that came out of the tap was clear and tasty. One of the hardest things to adjust to when I moved to Philadelphia was the fact that the water that came out of my kitchen sink didn't taste too great. For a while I bought bottled water, but my bank account couldn't handle that expense and I didn't like the amount of plastic I generated, especially living in an apartment building with sketchy recycling practices. It also felt wrong to me to buy bottled water, when I live in one of the few countries in the world where the tap water is pretty much universally safe for general consumption. 
Do you drink bottled water? Are you someone who won't drink water unless it's bottled? Do you only drink a certain brand of bottled water because it's chic, or trendy, or in some way is an extension of who you are?
Who says you have to wait til January 1 to make resolutions?
For the past couple of years, there has been a growing interest in getting local foods whenever possible, largely because it is perceived as helping the local economy, being better for the environment and better for your health (assuming the local food is organic, etc., not factory-farmed). There is one food - a drink, actually, that has strongly resisted this trend, where "'distance and exoticism are marketed as advantages": bottled water. Fiji, one of the more expensive store brands, is now the number 2 selling premium bottled water in the US.
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