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Results of Draw — Vancouver 2010 Olympics Opening Ceremony Dress Rehearsal

Suanne — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:00:08 +0000

The response was simply overwhelming. When Arkensen and Nanzaro donated three of their precious Dress Rehearsal tickets to chowtime’s readers we did not think much about it. After all, we had too many tickets and the event is held on work and school hours.

Credit metronews.ca - stig nielsen/for metro vancouver

It was in the news yesterday that thousands of volunteers were lining around the block in downtown Vancouver to get hold of just one ticket (with the option to buy another one at $50). Between Nanzaro and Arkensen, they were given ten without having to line up for it.

You know …

I want to say a heartfelt thank you for all the unexpected kind words you had for Arkensen and Nanzaro. We even received a long moving email from a reader just thanking the boys for putting the tickets out there. Those words meant a lot to Suanne and I because this allows us to demonstrate to our boys what it means to share and how people out there who truly appreciates such unselfish act. I want to let you know they are pleased and are proud of what they had done even though they did not say it. I can see it in their eyes. :-)

Thanks a lot!

It goes without saying that particular post generated the most number of comments ever. We had recorded a total of 308 comments. As expected, there are some frivolous submissions (i.e. 24 comments coming from one IP within a space of 30 minutes) … sorry to say we removed the entire swath of these emails from the draw.

We ended up with 272 email addresses which we ran through the Randomizer.

Here are the results:
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Results of Draw — Vancouver 2010 Olympics Opening Ceremony Dress Rehearsal (98 words)

Amazing Natural Camouflage

Ben — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:01:46 +0000

Alright this is not about food … not even remotely related at all. I got these amazing pictures from a friend and thought I want to put it up on the site for a little experiment.

As I was looking at these, I can’t help but to think how much effort one would go through to take even one picture of these creatures.

Enjoy these pictures.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Amazing Natural Camouflage (0 words)

Happy New Year 2010

Ben — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:29:18 +0000

Each moment in a day has its own value.
Morning brings HOPE
Afternoon brings FAITH
Evening brings LOVE,
Night brings REST,
Hope you will all of them everyday.
HAPPY NEW YEAR

from Nanzaro, Arkensen, Suanne and Ben

Using Menu Psychology to Entice Diners (by the NYT)

Ben — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:16:09 +0000

I came across this very interesting article on the New York Times today. The article is a bit longish but it describes how the combination of prices, adjectives, fonts, type sizes, ink colors and placement on the page can coax diners into spending a little more money.

Quoting the article:

Some restaurants use what researchers call decoys. For example, they may place a really expensive item at the top of the menu, so that other dishes look more reasonably priced; research shows that diners tend to order neither the most nor least expensive items, drifting toward the middle. Or restaurants might play up a profitable dish by using more appetizing adjectives and placing it next to a less profitable dish with less description so the contrast entices the diner to order the profitable dish.

In another section of the article it also pointed out:

A study published by researchers at Cornell found that when the prices were given with dollar signs, customers spent less than when no dollar signs appeared. The study also found that customers spent significantly more when the price was …
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Using Menu Psychology to Entice Diners (by the NYT) (141 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments
Post tags: Non-Food

Splayd — Towards a Grand Unification of Cutlery

Ben — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:00:08 +0000

I thought this would be interesting and relevant to a food blog.

I don’t get the “Splayd” part. Anyone?

Image credit: http://www.geekologie.com/

This is taken off …
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Splayd — Towards a Grand Unification of Cutlery (27 words)

Mona Lisa Coffee Art

Ben — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:29:26 +0000

A friend of mine sent me this link below.

Do you know what they used to make that Mona Lisa portrait? It is this …

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Mona Lisa Coffee Art (36 words)

Couple Arrested For Refusing To Pay Tips!

Ben — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:30:41 +0000

I know this will provoke a response from some of our readers:

What do you think?

A Tribute to Our Soldiers on Remembrance Day

Suanne — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:52:59 +0000

Why Do Whites Accept Japanese and Thai Cuisine More Than Other Asian Cuisine?

Ben — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:45:47 +0000

About a month ago I introduce two of my very white colleagues at work the experience of eating Chinese Hot Pot at the Top Gun Hot Pot in Burnaby. In that post, I wrote about my curiosity why despite them being Canadians living in a cities (Vancouver and Toronto) with a lot of visible Asians, that they still have very little experience in enjoying authentic Asian food.

This picture sparked a discussion in a food forum. I thought it was fantastic but apparently to most this is the grossest thing they had ever seen.

Below is a comment that a reader of Chowtimes wrote in response to my question. Dyn’s comments has to be the mother of all comments for length (Thanks Dyn!). I thought it deserved to be elevated to a post on it’s own and perhaps some of you could also chip in with your two cents on this. Here is Dyn’s comments in its entirety:

I myself love every Asian cuisine I’ve tried (Japanese, Cantonese, Szechuan, Vietnamese, Korean, Shanghai, Punjabi, Pakistani, Lebanese, Syrian, South Indian…) – East and West Asian, that is. However, to answer your questions based on my own experiences and those of friends (and those I’ve tried to convince to try book-tripe!):

First, reasons why people are unnerved:

1. Media scaremongering.
There’s the recall freak-outs all the time, plus every bad comedy involving Asia inevitably has the Asian character eating something uncommon or gross to the western palette.

2. Unfamiliarity.
Organ meats are classically foods of the poor, and since most Westerners have had the privilege of being relatively wealthy (and developing cheap, processed food early on), those foods are not appealing to the young. On a related note, those of us who are the children of the baby-boomers or the grandchildren or children of those who lived through the Great Depression had to hear, growing up, terror stories about organ meats and a number of other things, so that adds to the issue. Also, alot of Northern European cuisine that came over with our ancestors was very, very bland, so to many the pungent smells of Asian cuisine are as offputting to Westerners (at first) as the smell of cooking pork is to alot of Asians (I seem to recall reading that there’s a word in some Chinese dialects for the smell of boiled pork?)

3. Looking Silly
Chopsticks are a bit of a learning curve, and people worry about making a fool of themselves, especially when thinking of…

4. Price
it’s not immediately evident to alot of Westerners that that $20 they see is for a family to share the dish, as Western restaurants (beyond some Amish ones in the Eastern US) are not communal in nature. Most Westerners do not realize that 3 dishes for a family of 4 with rice comes to an economical $10-15 per person most of the time, and possibly much less. Those who do know this will tend to want to go in groups and might not want to look silly per #3.

And now the issues that are not so much the people’s fault:

5. Translations
It can be a bit frightening to have a poorly-translated or badly translated menu, especially for would-be new folks. To their credit, most Asian restaurants do indeed endeavor to provide a translation for at least some of the dishes (see #7), but half the time they seem to be using a dictionary from the 1800s. An example of this would be, let’s say, “Yue Choy with Doufu and Fish Maw In Soup.” Let’s say this is a plausible dish. Some might get “Doufu” is “tofu”, but very few will know “yue choy” (which could easily and correctly be called “mild mustard greens” or “Chinese broccoli”) and even fewer will know what a maw is, and for those that do? Maw gives a very poor idea of what the cut/type of fish actually involved is. Similarly bad are one-off’s like “in sauce” or “in spicy soup with noodle” – what sauce? You have more than one, surely? Which soup base? Enough experiences like this can put someone off, especially if the menu doesn’t try and be descriptive. Worst-case, they’ll order a “safe” western dish, which may very well be poorly cooked and leave a bad taste in their mouths, so to speak – a local Westernized Chinese food place near me has lovely authentic Chinese food available (with names like above!), Westernized Chinese food, and hamburgers – anyone foolish enough to order their hamburgers will never return!

6. Hygiene
This comes down to two issues: first of all, the cleanliness. Asian restaurants seem to have a …
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Why Do Whites Accept Japanese and Thai Cuisine More Than Other Asian Cuisine? (849 words)

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Make a Difference

Suanne — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:21:29 +0000

I know this has nothing to do with food but I came across this video that is so moving that I simply had to share with you. Get a Kleenex and click Play.

Suanne