Recession-Proof: $6.50 @ Pam Real Thai
After weeding through the predictably a*sinine pile of beginning-of-year food trend predictions, the EF hath birthed up a few of her own! Ready?
Restaurants and restaurant staff, desperate not to get sh*t-canned, will start treating guests with attentive respect. They will smile, become efficient and courteous with seating and reservations, take a genuine interest in the enjoyment of your now-more-reasonably-priced meal, and will overall behave in a way that will encourage you to come back.
Novel, right?
La Bruni and Epicurious beat me to it, sans irony. Which scares the poop out of me. Those who categorize basic courtesy and value as trends can go f*ck themselves for lowering the bar for the rest of us.
EF goes on to predict that the "trend" will trickle into the back-of-house, where spoiled, whiny cheflings who used to have budgets for hydroponic microherbs, sous-vide Jacuzzis and chickens fed only with grains pooped by the pope will be forced to do what their less-appointed grannies have been doing all their lives. Cook.
They will, God forbid, have to accept produce orders that aren't the sparklingest, and scale back on those splurgy days at the Greenmarket. They will have to buy strange off-cuts of meat and fowl and figure out ways to make them tasty, not because they're all the rage, but because it's the most cost-effective way to demonstrate your skills as a cook and a kitchen supervisor.
No more finding ridiculous ways to make foods borne of thrift and homespun craft embarrassingly expensive and twee. Goodbye FN $15 pickle plates, $25 burgers and $50 mac-n-cheese!
Chefs, ya may actually learn how to make a burger, a plate of pasta, or a bowl of ramen palatable and profitable without the smokescreen of truffle shavings, Wagyu cows, and pheasant eggs.
Which brings us to hopeful EF trend prediction #3: Food bloggers (and their readers) may actually get to know a little something about food. With their limited dinero, they will become more discerning with what they put in their traps and choose to babble about.
No more chefculting, piling into the latest travesty that ScarJo frequents for Cheeseburger Spring Rolls, or spending a month's rent on froyo toppings.
The buzz phrase "recession is good for eaters" is true...but not because of stupid, fleeting sh*t like discount tasting menus and falling lobster prices.
NOW is the time to find the perfect roti, bánh mì, onigiri or taco, from the people who know how to make one, at the price it should be.
NOW is the time for NY hospitality to straighten their holier-than-thou crap out and treat their guests (and each other!) with respect and gratitude.
NOW is the time to buy a conventional chicken, some tired old onions and lentils, and learn to feed you and yours something to be proud of.
And, now's the time for me to get off my soapbox. I'm hungry.
Yup, nothing like a recession to show you how much you're being overcharged. And now chefs will have to incorporate SKILL into their menus - rather than just shi-shi ingredients - in order to justify their high prices. Imagine THAT...
Posted by: AD | February 05, 2009 at 09:32 PM
Amen, sista!
I think the first step towards cutting back should be doing away with tomatoes! Down with tomatoes!
Posted by: Andreapants | February 06, 2009 at 03:26 PM