The Food Network can now be seen in nearly 100 million American homes and on most nights commands more viewers than any of the cable news channels. Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation (another four minutes cleaning up); that’s less than half the time that we spent cooking and cleaning up when Julia arrived on our television screens. (Currently the most popular meal in America, at both lunch and dinner, is a sandwich; the No. 1 accompanying beverage is a soda.)
When we let corporations do the cooking, they’re bound to go heavy on sugar, fat and salt; these are three tastes we’re hard-wired to like, which happen to be dirt cheap to add and do a good job masking the shortcomings of processed food. And if you make special-occasion foods cheap and easy enough to eat every day, we will eat them every day. The French fry did not become the most popular “vegetable” in America until industry relieved us of the considerable effort needed to prepare French fries ourselves. The time and work involved in cooking, as well as the delay in gratification built into the process, served as an important check on our appetite. Now that check is gone, and we’re struggling to deal with the consequences.
Read the whole article here Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch – NYTimes.com.
Heineken sales sank 18% from the previous year in grocery, convenience and drug stores during the two-week period ended July 5, followed by Budweiser at 14%. Corona Extra sales dropped 11%, while Miller Lite declined 9% and Bud Light fell 7%. Coors Light sales held up better, falling less than 1% from a year ago.
This trend is obviously a backlash, a thumbing of collective noses against years of picky eaters, sauce-on-siders, vegans and other dietary malcontents so frequently bemoaned by fine-dining chefs, as well as a celebration of that delightful category of ingredients that will likely send you — both literally and figuratively — to heaven. Moderation and good common dietary sense have no place here. Foie gras jelly donuts, on the other hand…
And China is the largest aqua-culture producer of seafood and the largest Wheat grower in the world (for all those Dim Sums and noodles to feed their 6 Billion mouths). 
Denny’s has created something called the “Allnighter” program. From 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., the chain has started playing alternative rock music on the restaurant soundtrack. Denny’s has now sponsored over 30 emerging bands —they get free meals while on tour — and organized late-night meet-and-greets, and occasional jam sessions, with the musicians in the restaurants. The servers wear casual black t-shirts instead of a buttoned-up uniform. Denny’s also just introduced four new late-night menu items, each priced between $3 and $4. These include the “Pancake Puppy 12-pack,” a dozen bite sized hotcakes rolled in cinnamon and sugar, and “Kickin’ Flavor Wraps,” two tortillas served with chicken strips. The idea is to serve stuff that groups of amped-up rabble-rousers can share. Denny’s wants to give the late-night crowd a social experience they can’t get at the fast-food drive-thrus, which are now staying open later through the night and eating away at the chain’s graveyard shift revenues.