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Random Food Report: Velveeta Vs. Velvet Taco

Plus: Bacon Vs. Peanut Butter Pop Tarts

1. Is Kraft Really Running Out Of Velveeta?

“It’s not a seasonal product,” says Ken Albala, a culinary historian who teaches a class on ‘History of Food’ at University of the Pacific in Stockton, Ca. “There is no dish served between Thanksgiving and Christmas that is quintessentially Velveeta.”
What’s more, says Albala, if there’s one cheese product on the planet that should never run out, it’s Velveeta. “The whole point of Velveeta is you keep it on the shelf indefinitely. It’s the cheese for people who don’t know how to cook.”

Also, Velveeta’s YouTube Channel Is Titled Eat Liquid Gold.


2. Velvet Taco Expands To Fort Worth And Chicago.

Those Chicagoans have no idea what goodness is coming their way.

Maybe, but we’re a pretty tough taco market to tap right now.
3. Pork Supply Rebounds: Bacon Prices Drop As Food-Fad Wanes.
Good. Weed out the pretenders.

A&W Restaurants Inc. says it was the first chain to serve a bacon cheeseburger in 1963. In the past two decades, fast-food restaurants started adding more items with bacon in their menus and frozen, pre-cooked bacon made it easier to eat at home. Forty-four percent of Americans eat bacon in a two-week period, compared with 38 percent 13 years ago, according to NPD Group, an industry consultant.
Denny’s, which operates more than 1,680 restaurants, reprised its 2011 ‘Baconalia!’ menu in March with 12 items including BBQ Bacon Mac ‘n Cheese Bites and Caramel Bacon Stuffed French Toast. Wendy’s started selling the Bacon Portabella Melt on Brioche in November. McDonald’s, the world’s largest restaurant chain, last month added three $2 sandwiches with bacon.
Barley & Grain in New York offers a Bacon Manhattan, while Double Down Saloon in Las Vegas serves a Bacon Martini.

Rule: Bacon cheeseburger at Arby’s is cool, Bacon Martinis and Manhattans not.
4. McDonald’s Looking For A Way To Move Unsold Mighty Wings.
Wrap them in bacon?
*
See also: Popeye’s And McDonald’s Both Want A Piece Of Buffalo Wild Wings’ Business.
5. In Defense Of Pop Tarts: Innovation Can Be Simple And Delicious.
True, but Peanut Butter Pop Tarts are an abomination. And don’t try adding bacon.
*
In Hi-Def.


6. Oh, McDonald’s, You Just Don’t Know What To Do With Yourself These Days.
This has epic disaster written all over it.
7. Buns On Blast.
The new fast-food battlefield?
8. Applebee’s To Serve Tablets At Every Table.

The action follows a similar move by rival Chili’s, which already has begun the process of placing tablets at its company-owned locations. IHOP, also owned by Applebee’s parent, DineEquity, is looking into tablets, too.

To Insure Prompt Service?
9. Five Myths About Obesity.
10. Exporting Chicago.
* Potbelly Opens First Tennessee Location.
In Turkey Creek.
* Bradenton’s Joey D’s Chicago Pizza Expands To Sarasota.
Began in Minneapolis in 1994.

Comments welcome.

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Posted on January 8, 2014