Plus: Maple Syrup And Ground-Up Beetles
1. So that’s where they’ve been putting all the bones.
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2. Trick Question.
“What is ‘the cheapest, most nutritious and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history’ Hint: It has 390 calories. It contains 23g, or half a daily serving, of protein, plus 7% of daily fiber, 20% of daily calcium and so on.
“Also, you can get it in 14,000 locations in the US and it usually costs $1. Presenting one of the unsung wonders of modern life, the McDonald’s McDouble cheeseburger.”
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3. Closing Time.
“Shocking absolutely no one with a working knowledge of who Flavor Flav is, the very last Flav’s Chicken & Ribs location has been evicted from its building in Sterling Heights, Michigan after an extended battle with the site’s owner,” the A.V. Club notes.
Flav, however, says a new fiesta is in the making:
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4. Jazz Waffles.
“One of Popeyes’ biggest product launches this year drew its inspiration from the West Coast – a departure for the chain that likes to tout its Louisiana roots,” Ad Age reports.
“The limited-time Chicken Waffle Tenders – boneless chicken strips with a waffle batter, served with a honey maple dipping sauce – were inspired by the dietary habits of jazz musicians in Los Angeles during 1940s and ’50s.”
Sort of.
“The origin of Chicken & Waffles is a bit sketchy and distorted, to say the least,” according to Dame’s Chicken & Waffles in Durham, North Carolina.
Stories of Thomas Jefferson, the Pennsylvania Dutch and Southern slaves have all contributed to the mystery and lore of the beginnings of chicken & waffles. Although many lay claim to having invented and inspired this combination, there are some facts about the history of chicken & waffles that are undeniable.
First and foremost, chicken & waffles gained notoriety during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s-40’s. It was during this era that an explosion of artistic creativity was taking place. Harlem, New York became the mecca of music, visual art, dance and most genres of creative forms of expressions. Artists of all types and all walks of life were making their way to Harlem to “make it” and lay claim to their piece of the artistic world at that time.
As a result of this renaissance, jazz music began to grow and spread throughout the United States. No other area in the country witnessed this transformation more than Harlem. With major venues like the Cotton Club and The Savoy Ballroom, Harlem quickly became a hot spot for music and entertainment. Jazz orchestras and swing bands routinely made Harlem a mainstay on their tour schedules. Musical masters, such as William “Count” Basie, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and the legendary Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, called Harlem home at some point during the Renaissance.
With the Harlem music scene quickly becoming the place to be, it was not uncommon for the concerts and parties at that time to last until the late hours of the evening and early morning. It was this phenomenon that caused several restaurants in the area to stay open late to accommodate the bands and party-goers after the shows and parties.
One restaurant specifically, a family-owned establishment known as Wells Supper Club, began to offer late night food services. Wells was already known for its great Southern-inspired menu and had been a cornerstone of the Harlem food scene from the beginning.
Wells Supper Club offered breakfast, lunch and dinner. With dinner service typically ending around 11 p.m. – 12 a.m., Wells would often have fried chicken leftover from the dinner service. Seeing an opportunity to boost sales and reduce food waste, Wells started offering a late night/early morning menu featuring their savory fried chicken paired with a deliciously sweet waffle. The combination quickly became a hit and inspired other restaurants to offer the pairing as well. Suffice it to say that THIS was the beginning of the chicken & waffles popularity that we experience to this very day.
Well, that works for Popeyes because their chicken is already at least a day old.
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Tangentially related: Lay’s Chicken & Waffle Potato Chips.
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Note: Not endorsing the black person-chicken stereotype, which is discussed in the YouTube comments. Just liked the review – and of a product we didn’t know existed and appears to be a massive fail at that.
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5. Jazz Tarts.
“Carl’s Jr. will roll out a Hand-Scooped Strawberry Pop-Tarts Ice Cream Sandwich to all its restaurants as a limited-time offer,” Nation’s Restaurant News reports.
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6. Jazz Soup.
“Campbell Soup Co. will launch more than 200 products in the coming months – from Goldfish Mac & Cheese to a new variety of V8 sold cold – as it adjusts for what CEO Denise Morrison described as ‘seismic shifts’ in the food marketplace,” Ad Age reports.
Let me guess: Chicken & Waffles Soup. In a maple syrup broth.
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7. Jazz Yogurt.
“Health officials have recently revealed that Dannon’s yogurt products may contain a creepy-crawly secret responsible for its color,” Science World Report reports.
“Known as carmine, this color additive is created by crushing the bodies of cochineal beetles.”
Oh come on, that’s hardly a secret – the dye was found in a favlor called Beetles & Waffles.
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8. Actual Serious News.
“Fast-food workers are walking picket lines across the country this week,” NPR reports.
“They’re staging a series of one-day strikes in seven cities, including New York, Chicago and St. Louis. The campaign is aimed at pressuring McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food chains to pay a so-called living wage of $15 an hour.”
Someone has to make all this horrible food, and they should be paid a decent wage to do so.
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9. The dark side of foodie fanaticism.
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10. The Chicago Bears will eat 5,100 ribeye steaks, 2,516 pounds of deli meat and 2,250 pounds of king crab legs during training camp, The Sports Bank reports.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on July 30, 2013