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Deep-fried butter. That is all

Just when you thought it couldn’t get better than the Double Down Sandwich or Perky Jerky, the American spirit shows itself once again.

This time, it is deep-fried butter.

The Today Show has the details:

Who among us hasn’t simultaneously marveled and shuddered over accounts of deep-fried Twinkies? Deep-fried Oreos? Deep-fried bacon?

Well, brace yourself, because a new deep-fried item has been invented that’s so bold, so audacious, so brazen, it’s bound to take your breath away. The invention is none other than:

Deep-fried butter.

I am speechless.

God Bless America!

Previous topics mentioned in this post:

#19. KFC’s Double Down Sandwich

Link Roundup “Free Refills at Starbucks” edition

Link roundup—“Free Refills at Starbucks*” edition

Last week New York Governor Paterson signed a bill banning texting while driving. If a cop catches you typing out a message on your keypad or doing other “dangerous” activities like using an iPod, it will cost you $150. I guess we can call this victory for the latest round of New York Times fear-mongering. –(via Gothamist)

Just when you thought culinary achievement had reached its zenith when KFC rolled out the Double Down Sandwich, the American food scientists have developed a new mind-blowing product: caffeinated beef jerky. Perky Jerky, as it is called, will pack an impressive 150 milligrams of caffeine into every 2 oz bag. Why sip your espresso when you can chew on jerky? –(via Consumerist)

It is not quite as consumer friendly as a free refills policy should be, but the folks at Starbucks have finally entered the civilized world of the bottomless coffee cup. They are now offering free refills on brewed or iced coffee along with two free hours of internet access. The catch is that you need to pay for your coffee with a registered Starbucks card to qualify. At least it’s a start!

The Pay-Toilet Address

I wrote this as a memorial on the 18 month anniversary of the new pay toilet installed in Madison Square Park. It is one of two pay toilets that have been installed in New York by a Spanish company seeking to undermine the right to pee for free that was hard won by the Committee to End Pay Toilets In America over 30 years ago. Thankfully, plans to install 18 more pay toilets have stalled.

One score and fourteen years ago, great patriots brought forth in this Nation, a new right, conceived of necessity, and dedicated to the proposition that all men should be able to pee for free.

Now we are engaged in a great public struggle, testing whether that right, or any right so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. Here in New York, at Madison Square Park, is the latest battlefield of that struggle. It is fitting that when we look at the new pay toilet erected here, we remember those great patriots who fought so hard that we might pee for free.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we remember them in our hearts.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot give up—we cannot capitulate—we cannot leave unfinished their great struggle. The patriots of CEPTIA, living and dead, who fought here and across our Nation, have earned their place in the American cannon, far above our poor power to add or detract from their accomplishments.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we do here today, but it can never forget what CEPTIA accomplished.

It is for us of the 21^st century, rather, to be dedicated again to the unfinished work which they who fought to end pay toilets years ago so nobly advanced. It is up to us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that despite the recent setbacks we have suffered, we take increased devotion to the cause for which the patriots in CEPTIA gave their full devotion—that we highly resolve that the struggle to banish pay toilets from America shall not go unfinished—that this Nation, under God, shall have a new constitutional amendment banning pay toilets in all their forms—and that the right of all the people, rich and poor, to pee for free, shall not perish from this earth.

(Hat tip, Gothamist)

Previous topics mentioned in this post:

€1. Pay toilets

#1. CEPTIA

The American Flag or “Your Ad Here?”

You know that giant American Flag that has covered the front of the New York Stock Exchange since shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks?

Well apparently that particular American flag is not so much a memorial as it is a placeholder for corporate promotion opportunities. Consider it a patriotic version of the ubiquitous “Your ad here” billboards.

Hopefully the Chinese infant formula company promoted there on August 18^th, 2009 produces a safer product than the melamine-tainted Chinese baby formula the FDA warned us about last year.

American Capitalism at its finest.

(Hat tip, Matt N.)

Being an American means you don’t have to sweat (as much)

Taking the subway in the middle of the summer is never going to be an entirely pleasant experience. For starters, the fact you’re taking the subway means you’ve already had to leave your air-conditioned home or office and ventured out into the summer heat.

But at least in America when you finally get on the subway train you’re greeted with a blast of cold, air-conditioned air.

Turns out that is not the case everywhere, though.

A horrifying map posted on The Map Scroll shows just how stiflingly hot it gets in London’s un-air-conditioned Underground trains.

Thankfully New York’s MTA installed the newfangled A/C technology in all of New York’s 5,800 subway cars when the technology became economical, over four decades ago.

The Brits plan on rolling out the first new air-conditioned trains on selected lines sometime in 2010. No need to rush into things, guys.

God Bless A/C and God Bless America!

Previous topics mentioned in this post:

€4. Inadequate air conditioning

Link Roundup—“That’s 1228 calories of delicious” edition

The food industry blog Foodservice-Friends.com takes a close look at the cost of providing free refills in a restaurant. The article has a lot of industry-speak, but the long and short of it is that offering free refills adds about 12 cents to the cost of serving a 20oz soft drink, bringing the total cost to about 32 cents. That means Mc Donald’s is clearing at least 68 cents on each medium coke sold. I’ll take the supersized one, please.

Bryan Caplan at the blog EconLog gives his take on why Americans tend to overrate Europe after traveling there (and why Europeans underrate America). It boils down to the suburbs where most people live. Americans never see European suburbs, which are godforsaken hell holes, and Europeans never see American suburbs, with their ample parking, big cars and Costco outlets.

News of KFC’s new Double Down Sandwich is moving fast—at least faster than you will be moving after you eat the bacon and cheddar sandwich with two deep-fried chicken breasts as the bun. The Vancouver Sun did an analysis and found that the Double Down Sandwich packs a hefty 1228 calorie punch. “[that] compares closely to the fat, salt and calorie totals of three McDonalds Big Macs put together.” Unfortunately you can only get it in Nebraska and Rhode Island as of now.

Previous topics mentioned in this post:

#13. Costco

#16. Cheap gas

#19. KFC’s Double Down Sandwich

#19. KFC’s “Double Down Sandwich”

Just when you though eating in America couldn’t get any better, the great food scientists at KFC go and out do themselves once again.

No, it is not some new larger version of #7 the Chicken & Biscuit Bowl, it is something better.

A bacon and cheddar sandwich with two pieces of fried chicken as the bun!

KFC calls it the Double Down Sandwich.

Consumersit.com said it “is perhaps man’s greatest achievement.” It is certainly one of the great things about America!

I will let the video and pictures speak for themselves.

Hat tip, Foodgeekery.com & Consumerist.com

Dare I say God Bless America?

Previous topics mentioned in this post:

#7. KFC’s Chicken & Biscuit Bowl

MINUTEMENT UPDATE: Future finally arrives

Know what sucks? When you’re flipping through a magazine to look at the celebrity pictures and a colorful ad catches your eye—and you’re compelled to read the text to figure out what the ad is selling and how you can buy it.

I know it bums me out.

Thankfully, the great men and women on Madison Avenue have come to the rescue. According to a report in the Financial Times, New York and Los Angeles subscribers of Entertainment Weekly will be spared the need to read print ads from CBS and Pepsi in next month’s issue. Instead, the ads will be displayed as videos on small, ultra-thin screens embedded in the magazine.

Finally, the promise of Back to the Future II has been realized. Now if could finally have those cars that don’t need roads…

God Bless American marketing and innovation!

Chain restaurants in NYC: Saturation point or starting point?

The Center for an Urban Future has a new study out showing the number of chain restaurants and stores in New York City.  Here are some of the highlights for Manhattan.

(Here is the report for the whole city)

Store———– Outlets in Manhattan————–Outlets/Square Mile

Starbucks                            193                                                        8.3

Subway                                153                                                         6.6

Dunkin’ Donuts                105                                                          4.6

McDonalds                         81                                                             3.5

Baskin-Robbins                46                                                               2

Burger King                       20                                                              .87

Predictably, the hipster and neighborhood association crowds are outraged by the spread of affordable, air-conditioned stores like Dunkin’-Donuts and Mc Donald’s. Apparently when such places fill a vacant storefront or displace a sketchy tattoo parlor, it somehow ruins the character of the city.

I don’t buy it.

What the naysayers don’t understand is that chain restaurants help spread the things that make America great. This is both true overseas—where a Mc Donald’s is a familiar place of refuge—and in our own backyards.

Sure Bob’s Sketchy Super Burrito/Pizza Palace might have “character.” But that so called “character” is often little more than a hot, grimy restaurant with bad service. What’s more, the so-called “character” and “uniqueness” of Bob’s Sketchy Super Burrito/Pizza Palace is undermined by the fact that it is indistinguishable from the countless other “independent,” “neighborhood” burrito/pizza palaces across New York.

Chipotle, on the other hand, succeeds not because it is part of some nefarious chain, but because it embraces the things that make America great: Its restaurants are clean and air-conditioned. The food is good, consistent and affordable. Refills are free. And the sales clerks don’t try to enforce credit card minimums.

I think of the 3.5 Mc Donald’s restaurants and 4.6 Dunkin’ Donuts per square mile in Manhattan not as a saturation point, but as a starting point.

In a city where no one drives things need to be close—and right now, the things we want are often not close enough.

While there is a Mc Donald’s and Starbucks convenient to my apartment, Dunkin’ Donuts is nowhere to be found. And when it comes to Pizza, forget it. The only place on my block serves horrible, greasy pizza and tries to enforce a $20 minimum on credit card purchases.

So if you’re looking to open a pizza franchise, consider this an open invitation. Union Square needs you.

And to all the Mc Donald’s and Starbucks* managers in New York: God Bless You and God Bless America!

*Please just try and keep the bathrooms clean

Previous topics mentioned in this post:

#6. Chargebacks and Credit Cards

€1. Pay toilets

€4. Inadequate air conditioning

5 Things about New York that make America Great