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The Ten Most Recent Comments By TableBread

From Required Eating

Fresh Fruit: Nutrient-Packed or Not?

I see what's happening here (sigh). Serious Eats has gone the way of the numbers. If you actually go to the article it plainly states that 'pre-packaged' fruit is the problem.

Another title meant to generate traffic. (sigh) This is happening way too often nowadays. Same thing has happened at Slashfood. Sometimes your like: "Are they just posting this to have a post?" Sad.

IMHO

From Required Eating

Fresh Fruit: Nutrient-Packed or Not?

This is just another form of bait and switch. How much longer must we endure this?

Eat fruit, don't eat fruit, eat whole grain breads, carbs are bad, carbs are good again.

Jeez, just make it stop.

Come over and have a piece of cheesecake: http://tablebread.blogspot.com I promise it may not be full of nutrients but it is good :)

~Tablebread

From Required Eating

In Videos: Mr. Scruff's 'Sweet Smoke'

Wow, that's some pretty amazing animation! Glad to see one about pie :)

~Tablebread
http://tablebread.blogspot.com

From Recipes

Sunday Brunch: Huevos Oaxaca

I have always found the titles of recipes funny. Like once I saw a recipe for 'Japanese Cheesecake' with absolutely no ingredient related to the orient even in an abstract way and the author of the recipe had no clue why it was called that either.
So when I saw this recipe and the title was 'Huevos Oaxaca' I thought - "Oh wow, a new deep South American dish from the Oaxaca region. I haven't seen that before." only to find out that really it was more like an oven top quiche with jalapeƱos. Sounds delicious but I was hoping for something specific to the Oaxaca region.

~Tablebread
http://tablebread.blogspot.com

From Required Eating

Photo of the Day: Bok Choy Fish

These are so cool! I love food art. It's the advanced version of playing with your food :)

~Tablebread
http://tablebread.blogspot.com

From Required Eating

Have Hardee's and Carl's Jr. Gone Too Far (Or Big)?

I think it's pretty funny we're talking about this. How long have these types of burgers been available at other mainstream "restaurants"? Like Chilis' or Benigans?

It's a gimmick people - and all this discussion is proof it is working.

~TableBread
http://tablebread.blogspot.com

From Required Eating

How Do We Save Starbucks?

I am personally happy that McD's is bringing coffee to the States. I lived in Italy for several years and they always had a full coffee bar inside. Starbucks coffee is just a sad shadow of it's former self and it needs to go away. Bring in Seattle's Best coffee if you're hankering for something from the rainy city.

~TableBread
http://tablebread.blogspot.com

Responses to Comments by TableBread

From Required Eating

How Do We Save Starbucks?

ChristineB Wrote:

4) You pay for internet at home. Why shouldn't you pay for it at a coffee shop?

-----

Because I don't pay $5 for a cup of coffee at home... that's why.

From Required Eating

Have Hardee's and Carl's Jr. Gone Too Far (Or Big)?

I'd like all of my burger consumption to be accompanied by hot dogs.

From Required Eating

How Do We Save Starbucks?

The bottom line is, it's just not very good coffee. I take strong exception to the commenter above who stated that it wasn't burnt, it was just a dark roast. I love a strong, dark roast - the stronger, the better. Starbucks' blends have a bitter, burnt taste to them. The fact that "plenty of people like it" is far from a ringing endorsement. Plenty of people like lots of things - doesn't mean any of them are any good.

Start by getting back to something novel: offering decent coffee at a fair price. You're a coffee shop. Get out of the friggin' music business and focus on your core.

Offer simple pastries that are fresh. You certainly charge top dollar for pastries that are - at times - stale and dry.

Two words: customer service. Your baristas are often misanthropes who think they are too good to be making my beverage because they should be working on their novel or something. And they're slow.

Clean your stores up. I know they all see a high volume in the mornings, but they shouldn't look like a tornado just blew through.

Free Wi-Fi. Free Wi-Fi. Free Wi-Fi.

I agree with the commenter above - a SB employee - who said that there should be nightly entertainment. What a terrific idea. Our local coffee shops do that, and they bring in customers around the clock, while fostering a feeling of community.

For those of you rooting against Starbucks in favor of the local shops, check out the recent article on Slate discussing the ameliorative effects on the mom-and-pop places when Starbucks moves in. Many local operators - fearful of Starbucks moving in down the street - found that their business actually increased.

From Required Eating

In Videos: Mr. Scruff's 'Sweet Smoke'

This is genius!!!

From Required Eating

In Videos: Mr. Scruff's 'Sweet Smoke'

Very cute!

From Required Eating

Fresh Fruit: Nutrient-Packed or Not?

"Dr. Tom Sanders says that breakfast cereals served with semi-skimmed milk, are low energy meals that provide about one fifth of the micronutrient requirements of children and should be encouraged. Portion size as it is being eaten but not dry weight nutritional facts should be considered. Dr. Sanders is professor of nutrition at King's College London, leading scientist of the OPTILIP trial and acting as a consultant to the cereal manufacturers, says that traffic light labels misclassifies unfairly breakfast cereals."

These people are S-C-U-M...
sold soul to the devil...this is why i hardly ever read the Guardian now...

From Required Eating

Fresh Fruit: Nutrient-Packed or Not?

In most cases, fresh-sliced, pre-packaged and prepared fruits and vegetables have a nutritional content comparable "whole fruit." I can't understand the reasoning behind prepared fruit being "the problem." It's simply a matter of convenience for many, and often it makes fruit more desirable to eat (which is a good thing despite what this article says). It is simply not realistic to assume that everyone can eat locally and/or organically. We should be so grateful that we have the variety and abdundance of food that we have.

From Required Eating

Fresh Fruit: Nutrient-Packed or Not?

Many good comments have already been made whether in reference to problematic nutritional analysis or the difference between the pre-sliced, peeled apple slices ninety days old and fresh fruit grown with natural fertilizers, peel and core intact. (FYI, I've heard the stuff about antioxidants debunked, too.)

Let me add this: concerns about obesity dominate nutritional advice to an extreme. Consequently, you'll read about all the benefits of oranges (here: http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c20Vk.html) qualified by the degree to which sugars govern calorie intake.

If you look at Harvard's survey of Food Pyramids, you'll see that recommendations favor vegetables which you're encouraged to eat in abundance, whereas you should consume 2 1/2 servings of fruit a day. Why? Much higher percentage of sugar? More calories? The greater likelihood you'll find protein and a variety of nutrients in vegetables than fruits? Or our nutritional classification system (vitamins, minerals, fiber...) to blame for slighting fruits? After all, nutrition is a product of culture, not nature.

Here's the link: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramids.html

There is something to be said for the fact that fruit is delicious and probably better for me than many other options when I long for something filling and sweet.


From Required Eating

Fresh Fruit: Nutrient-Packed or Not?

I see what's happening here (sigh). Serious Eats has gone the way of the numbers. If you actually go to the article it plainly states that 'pre-packaged' fruit is the problem.

Another title meant to generate traffic. (sigh) This is happening way too often nowadays. Same thing has happened at Slashfood. Sometimes your like: "Are they just posting this to have a post?" Sad.

IMHO

From Required Eating

Fresh Fruit: Nutrient-Packed or Not?

A blanket statement like that is sure to be mostly wrong. Nutritional value varies greatly from one fruit to another. Most importantly though, as always, is the method of cultivation, and the point in the ripening process at which the fruit was harvested, and how much time elapsed from harvest to consumption.

Fruits and veggies grown on industrial farms have very little nutritional value other than sugars, starches and fibre. When it comes to flavor and nutritional value, it's all about the soil. The soil they are grown in has been over extended and depleted of nutrients, and synthetic chemical fertilizers are used to promote vegetative growth. While these fertilizers are designed to optimize the growth of the plant and it's fruit, they do very little to adding the nutritional value we seek and expect. An old traditional method of farming was to rotate crops, so that a field never was growing the same crop one season to the next, and would usually be left to grow wild for one season every three or four years. Also, planting legumes every few years actually replenishes the soil in nitrogen, as legumes can grab nitrogen out of the air which is then put into the soil through the plants roots. Nitrogen is an essential component to all life. Plants use it to form chlorophyl which as we all know is the engine in photosynthesis.

Fruit is generally harvested under-ripe, and ripens in transit to the warehouses and ultimately to the stores where they are sold. Vitamins and minerals are for the most part water soluble and degrade over time and exposure to oxygen, so if a fruit or veggie is cut up into pieces and/or sits around for a while ripening in the back of a semi or in a warehouse, it will lose significant amounts of whatever little nutrients it already had to begin with.

As always, buying organic and local makes a big difference. The best solution is to grow your own, but that is not always feasible. You get what you pay for. But yeah, even supermarket factory farmed fruits and veggies are better than none at all. Robyn, your summary is misleading and I think should be re-written, as the article linked clearly makes the distinction between whole fruits and prepared and prepackaged fruit.