90% of the goodness of a steak, or burger, or taco happens in the simplest part of the preparation

[Tim May]

OK, so I had an excellent "Super Quessadilla, Carnitas" today in Santa
Cruz at Tacqueria Los Perricos (parrots). Standing room only. While I
often more often order two tacos, today the quessadilla appealed to me.
The carnitas appeales to me. That there was a tortilla below and a
torilla above meant that I could easil6b generate two very, very large
tacos. And easily add topics. I just couldn't finish them.

What's my point?

It's that nearly all of the goodness of a Mexican item, or a burger, or
even a steak, happens pretty early on. A steak that is properly
seasoned and cooked to the proper temperature doesn't usually need
exotic reductions or side dishes. And a burger which is properly
seasoned and cooked is fine with a very simple bun.

And yet we see $15 burgers, even much more expensive burgers ("The $190
umami Waygu burger with blue cheese grown in a bespoke and artisinal
manner on the inner thigh by the one French virgin we were able to
find, served with a ganache of truffles and caviar from an ancient cave
discovered in Kazakhstam."

The tacos I make at home, the burgers I do in my cast iron skillet,
even the chile-flavored spaghetti I make at home....these are all
mostly more to my liking than what restaurants serve.

And because of this, I make a lot of money. Money I put into
cryptocurrencies when they were knew, money I put into Apple in 1997-98
and sold a couple of years ago.

Eating well with home cooking can be very lucrative.

(And almost none of my home cooking is complicated. I could don fine
with just a 10-inch cast iron skillet, a larger Dutch oven or
equivalent, a stick or stand blender, and a few spatulas, tongs, and
so on. I don't bake, for instance.)

--
Tim May

[Todd Michel McComb]

In article <201709162109...@att.net>, Tim May <tc...@att.net> wrote:
>It's that nearly all of the goodness of a Mexican item, or a burger,
>or even a steak, happens pretty early on.

While the cattle are growing? Yes, very early on.

As far as the rest of this audience-of-zero piece, it might interest
you to know that "millennials" prefer cooking at home as compared
to prior generations. (This was cited in e.g. a piece about
Applebee's closing 100+ locations, if you want to look for it.)
(Millennials also prefer counter places, relatively.)

So marketers have been making adjustments. Those products where
they deliver all your ingredients in a box with a recipe are
supposedly booming. Seems inane to me, but hey.

[Tim May]

On 2017-09-17 07:05:29 +0000, Todd Michel McComb said:

> In article <201709162109...@att.net>, Tim May <tc...@att.net> wrote:
>> It's that nearly all of the goodness of a Mexican item, or a burger,
>> or even a steak, happens pretty early on.
>
> While the cattle are growing? Yes, very early on.
>
> As far as the rest of this audience-of-zero piece, it might interest

Well, to quibble, I think our ba.food articles are more of an "audience
of five" thing.

> you to know that "millennials" prefer cooking at home as compared
> to prior generations. (This was cited in e.g. a piece about
> Applebee's closing 100+ locations, if you want to look for it.)
> (Millennials also prefer counter places, relatively.)

I saw this. I doubt it.

>
> So marketers have been making adjustments. Those products where
> they deliver all your ingredients in a box with a recipe are
> supposedly booming. Seems inane to me, but hey.

A friend of mine served me a "Blue Apron" piece of salmon. His wife was
on a trip to India, so they tried a subscription to Blue Apron.

I watched him in the kitchen. It was painful. Little bags of little items.

Predicted: a lot of these "ingredients delivered to your door"
start-ups will flop badly.

(BTW, my friend and his wife cancelled the Blue Apron thing after their
free trial.)



--
Tim May

[Todd Michel McComb]

In article <201709182114...@att.net>, Tim May <tc...@att.net> wrote:
>I think our ba.food articles are more of an "audience of five"
>thing.

Only if one posts things relevant to the small audience. "Stop
your constant eating out!" ain't that, not by a long shot.

>I saw this. I doubt it.

Uh huh.

[sms]

The number of companies trying this may be booming, but judging from all
the promotions, it seems like the Uber/Lyft/Groupon business model of
losing money on every order but making it up on the volume.

The most amusing part of Groupon, to me, is that Groupon itself is
offering its own promotions to get you to buy a Groupon. So now we have
the investors of Groupon subsidizing meals, along with the investors of
Uber & Lyft subsidizing transportation. How long can this go on? And
it's rather unfair to businesses that don't have deep-pocketed investors
since they have to compete against a business model that is not sustainable.

In June I went to order a pizza from Three Guys Pies in Fremont for my
co-workers and I, and thought I'd check if they had any coupons since
they often have weekday specials. Up popped a Groupon for a $20 voucher
for $12.50. I went to buy it, and up pops a Groupon promotion for $10
off any Groupon $10 or more. So a $20 voucher cost me $2.50. Then when I
went to pick up the pizza it was on sale for $6 off the regular price
(it's expensive pizza so it was $18 even with the $6 discount). I
ordered some garlic knots to get to $20, and those were half-price
because they offer half-price appetizers every weekday afternoon. While
I probably would not have paid the $24 regular price for the pizza, I
would have willingly paid the $18 it would have cost that day.
Obviously, the owner of the restaurant could not survive if everyone
paid with a 37.5% off Groupon (and he has to give 50% of the $12.50 to
Groupon). If the $18 pizza for $6.75 is all incremental business, with
no extra labor costs, then the business owner probably is not losing
money, but if it's from customers that would otherwise pay $18, then
it's not too good since customers get conditioned to endless Groupons.
We have a restaurant near me that everyone who's tried it raves about,
then mentions that it's so expensive that they would not go there except
for the perpetual 40% off Groupon. So that restaurant is selling a $15
sandwich and getting $15 * 0.6 /2 = $4.50 for it. If they charged $8 for
the sandwich they'd likely make more money, but they can't get it out of
their head that the Groupon will lead to future non-Groupon sales.

[Todd Michel McComb]

In article <oprin0$9ul$1...@dont-email.me>,

sms <scharf...@geemail.com> wrote:
>The number of companies trying this may be booming, but judging
>from all the promotions, it seems like the Uber/Lyft/Groupon
>business model of losing money on every order but making it up on
>the volume.

I'm sure it'll be a while before the "here's your box to cook at
home" business shakes out. It wasn't that long ago that there was
a vast array of cooked food delivery services, and most are gone
already. (Youngest daughter worked at one that went out of business.
I assume the guy who came around here at one point is out of business
too.)

>... it's rather unfair to businesses that don't have deep-pocketed

>investors since they have to compete against a business model that
>is not sustainable.

But that's the point: Spend whatever it takes to create a monopoly
for yourself, *then* make all the money you want. That's the sort
of option available to people with very deep pockets. "Free market"
is *not* what these guys are about, so applying free market principles
is pointless. Their first order of business is eliminating anyone
who's been in that arena already, particularly small ("under
capitalized") businesses. Of course, this gambit often fails, but
when it succeeds, you are on easy street, and can start churning
out garbage & still make high profits like so many tech companies
do.

>... they can't get it out of their head that the Groupon will lead
>to future non-Groupon sales.

Yes, Groupon is more of a pure scam than a monopoly gambit. Businesses
will surely stop using (being scammed by) them at some point. I'm
surprised it's gone on this long.

Online ads likewise:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-11/startling-anecdote-about-online-advertising-restoration-hardware

I sure wouldn't call that observation "startling." More like,
"duh." Scammers like Google claim they successfully target ads,
but as I've discussed in the past here, that's clearly a lie.

[evergene]

Tim May wrote:

[lightly edited for clarity]

>What's my point?

> I make a lot of money.

+1

[Tim May]

True dat as the negroes put it.



--
Tim May