"value" news and stories

The word "Bordeaux" doesn't exactly conjure up images of value wine--that's what South Africa, Chile, and Australia are for--but a new list of Bordeaux most affordable wines just might change that. The Top 100 list includes 100 wines priced between $8 and $35 and were chosen by an expert panel of judges. In other words, there's more to Bordeaux than fabled first growths and $2,000 sticker prices.

Check out the list here. Have you had any of these?

Here are a few tips on how to save at the grocery store, straight from the grocer's mouth via the New York Times business section. Tom Heinen, owner of the Cleveland-area Heinen's Fine Foods chain, gives us the dirt. This is a recap:

1) DIY everything is not always your best bet. Sometimes it can be cheaper to buy certain pre-washed, pre-cut or otherwise pre-prepared items, because the factory that makes them probably wastes less lettuce/pepper/carrot than you would.

2) Look for local "artisan deals," like Wisconsin cheddar instead of the imported New Zealand kind, or locally grown radishes. If your grocery doesn't have good local deals, ask why not. Whole Foods does.

3) In fact, ask tons of questions of store employees. What's the best deal this week? What did you buy for your own kitchen today? I'm guessing this wouldn't work too well at your local Supervalu. Try it, and let me know!

Obesity in Britain, as it is in the US, is often referred to as an epidemic due to the quickly expanding waistlines of so many in the country. The Department of Health puts the number of overweight or obese people in Britain at 24.6 million, or around 40% of the total population, and they expect to see numbers increase over the next decade. People in the US are slightly healthier than they were lest year, in part because of trends towards healthier eating (even though we are still seeing a tremendous amount of very unhealthy food out there), but this same trend is not noticeable in the UK, according to a new study.

This study, which surveyed more than 12 million consumers about their shopping habits over the past four years, found that only 8% of Britons made an effort to buy healthier, more nutritious foods, such as organic products and "food with labels such as fresh, lite or low fat." 44% of British shoppers had made no effort to buy healthier foods, sticking with "value or extra-value lines" of products." Interestingly, there wasn't much difference in price between the baskets of the healthy shoppers and those who opted for cheaper, less nutritious foods. The healthy baskets cost an "average of £71.78compared with £71.18 for an unhealthy one," which means that most shoppers were buying what they perceived as value at a cost to their health and without saving anything in their wallets.

Source

It seems that more and more restaurants are offering prix fixe menus these days, a fact that the Wall Street Journal picked up on in their weekend edition. Restaurateurs and chefs like fixed prices because they can much more easily plan the labor and cost of what will be used for a meal, since everything will be timed and the menu options are limited. Diners who might have only had a main course and a dessert are now having salad, as well. For multi-course menus where the portions are small, a nice piece of duck that might have been one main course ordered à la carte, is now several smaller courses for multiple diners.

How can you, as a diner, tell if a fixed price menu is really a good deal? The WSJ suggests that a good place to start is by looking for "wide margin items," such as chicken, salads, pastas and salmon on the menu. They are foods that typically have a significant mark-up, which could be even higher behind the set price. Another thing to look for is tricky wording. For example, "tomato carpaccio" is really just thinly sliced tomatoes, though on the name alone some restaurants might up the price.

And what are signs that you're getting a good deal? Tasting menus that "bear no resemblance to à la carte offerings" often indicate that special time or care has gone into their preparation. And if the chef is well-known and you just want to "put yourself in his hands" the memories of the meal might be worth the price, no matter what it is.