The Consumerist post is based off an “Infographic of the Day” post from the magazine Fast Company.  The map above appears to show a far less dominant market position for McDonald’s than many had assumed. In fact, the blogger for Consumerist notes:

I had always assumed that McDonalds’ hamburger hegemony of the United States, if not the world, was complete. I was wrong. Clearly, I need to leave the Northeast more.

Indeed, the map seems to convey that McDonald’s has extreme concentration in the Northeast, but not many other places of dominance other than a scattering of black dots across the Northwest and upper Midwest.

There’s just one problem: by making the claim that McDonald’s is not as dominant as they thought, and by failing to explain the nature of the map seen above, Consumerist (as well as Fast Company) is essentially misreading and misinterpreting the data  by failing to note the map above is labeled McDonald’s vs. Allied Competitors.

So what does “Allied Competitors” mean? It means the total number of stores for McDonald’s top 7 competitors are being added together and compared directly with McDonald’s. So if there is a black dot in the region you are looking at, i.e. the Northeast, than McDonald’s in that region has more locations than its next 7 rivals COMBINED.  In any region that is NOT black, the 7 other competitors have more stores than McDonald’s, but only AFTER you combine all their stores  into one cumulative number. In these circumstances, a black McDonald’s dot is simply ineligible to appear on the map for that location and the color of the competitor with the most locations in that region is highlighted on the map.

So let me emphasize that again: the most predominant competitor is highlighted EVEN IF THAT COMPETITOR HAS FEWER STORES IN THE REGION THAN MCDONALD’S.

What is a more interesting question is WHY did Consumerist and Fast Company both highlight this map?  The original blog that posted this visualization, WeatherSealed, provided the map you see above as somewhat of an after-thought, imagining it as a Star Wars-esque “rebel alliance” of McDonald’s competitors who are able to  “beat” McDonald’s only by collectively banding together.  In fact, WeatherSealed led off their original blog post with a map that is a much more accurate representation of just how much McDonald’s dominates vs. other fast food joints on a per-location basis:

Here we see some sheer dominance of Texas and Oklahoma by Sonic, a smattering of Burger King & Dairy Queen clusters in the Upper Midwest/Plain States, some Jack-in-the-Box love for So-Cal and Arizona and some Wendy’s strength in the Appalachian belt.  But the blasting of black across the rest of the United States outside of these clusters makes clear the control McDonald’s wields over the U.S. market based on the number-of-locations metric.

So why did Consumerist and Fast Company highlight the other map? Because it’s prettier? Has more psychedelic colors? Conveys the more interesting (although completely inaccurate) point that McDonald’s might not be as dominant as people thought? Either way, Consumerist and Fast Company appear to have done a disservice to their readers by not better explaining the context of the map they were highlighting and/or noting the more relevant map of the two.

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Looking for the perfect gift for Dad?  Not quite sure if you want to give him something to eat or to wear?  Well, I have found the best of both worlds.  As you can see above, a company called R&E Praspaliauskas has come up with the idea of making bread in the shape of slippers.  Dad will appreciate the functionality of the gift, and everyone else will enjoy smearing it with butter and eating it with Christmas dinner.  One size fits all, indeed.

H/t to Selectism for the scoop.

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While the US economy seems to be on the rebound, many folks are still trying to make their dollars go as far as they can.  How do I know this?  Because that is the only reasonable explanation why people continue to take junk food and turn it into something they call “fancy.”  As first chronicled here, the site Fancy Fast Food takes fast food and tries to turn it into good looking dishes via their “extreme makeovers.”   Their most recent switcheroo: Carlbonade Flamande c/o Carl’s Jr.  Yuck. 

Now, along comes another effort, this time with food you can find in a vending machine, or offices in general.  Called Office Snack Gourmet, the post names “recipes designed to turn even the most disgusting of office snacks into delicious gourmet meals.”  Charming.  How about these delicacies: Twinkie Napoleon?  Truffled Berry Praline Purses?  3 Cheese Chilequiles? (above)  Gag.

Am I off base?  Judge, and test, for yourself.

H/t to Eat Me Daily for the tip.

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Many sports fans know that Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt recently competed in the track and field world championships in Berlin, Germany.  During two outstanding performances in the 100m and 200m races, Bolt broke both world records that he previously set at last year’s Beijing Olympics.  What makes these feats newsworthy in this space is the story behind the shoes he wore.  (Yes, it’s got to be the shoes.)

Bolt had his custom-made Pumas designed in a color to mirror his favorite root vegetable, the yam (see above).  Apparently, Bolt grew up loving the tuber, and it clearly has made an impact on him.  The question is, has it made him the runner that he is today, and is it too late to invest in yam futures?  Regardless, I hope it brings more attention to the delightful root, which it high on my deliciousness scale.

H/t to Stuff/Nz for the photo, and for those sweet potato/yam lovers out there, a great recipe here.

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Question: How do you open a banana?  You peel the stem down, right?  Apparently, this is not how monkeys break into this fruit – they start at the other end.  Watch this:

Just mind boggling.   That said, will you convert? 

H/T to Choosing Raw c/o This Is Life In Austin for this revelation.  And to Banana Bunker, just because.

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All the other bloggers that went with me were quick to post pictures and reviews of their trip in late May or early June. I did not, because, A) I’ve been busy as all hell, and B) my camera decided to start sucking that day.  By waiting a while, I’m able to *cheat* by incorporating photos from other bloggers into my write-up that aren’t the blurry, hideous ones I took. Thanks folks. Sorry my camera started sucking.

True to blogger stereotypes, we were a Motley Crew of hideously unattractive fatties, most of whom were dressed in their pajamas and clearly lived in their parent’s basement (except for one guy, who admitted his parents house was only one story, so he lived in the garage). I missed the dinner party the night before, but I did arrive in time to throw back a few beers at the hotel bar with John from Epic Portions while fending off a drunken, wannabe MILF, Ohio State fan.  I finally met up with the larger group the next morning, contributing my usual charm, engaging personality and stunningly handsome good looks to the group. Rather than start at the beginning, let’s start at the middle of the experience, when John from Epic Portions snapped this photo of me, on the line of the Taco Bell test kitchen, discovering the joys of squirting sour cream out of a caulking gun.

Of course to get into the test kitchen, we had to actually walk into the Taco Bell HQ first, as the below picture illustrates.  I’m the only one with a backpack, because I had to make a quick escape up to L.A. after the tour.  Scott Roberts is the only one with jean shorts, I assume because he had to continue being awesome after the tour concluded.

So where were we? Oh yes, test kitchen. We went in there and found a Taco Bell line similar to the set-up in all Taco Bell locations:

The purpose of the trip, at least from Taco Bell’s perspective, was to tell us all about the new Volcano menu, featuring spicy items designed to appeal to its core demographic of 25-44 year old big-eating males.

Click below for more details and photos.

The genesis of the Volcano menu is actually quite interesting. Noting the increase in popularity of spicy fast food items, Taco Bell set out to develop a product that was hot enough to satisfy spicy food lovers, but still palatable for the masses. What they came up with was the Volcano Taco, which was released last year. The star of the Volcano Taco is  “Lava Sauce,” a spicy, cheesy sauce that clocks in at 800 Scoville Units (50% hotter than Fire Sauce packets). This was the first thing Taco Bell let us taste, just straight up Lava Sauce in a cup:

This was actually my first time trying the Lava Sauce in any form, and I have to say, yum! The sauce is a great balance of spicy and cheesy, with a long, slow burn.  Even when they started putting actual food in front of us, I kept dabbing my spork (yes, they gave us sporks) into the cup of Lava Sauce over and over.  Good stuff.  The popularity of the Volcano taco led them to create additional Volcano menu items.  They let us try both of the two main components of the new Volcano Box, the Volcano Taco and the Volcano Burrito.

The Volcano Taco was meh. It tasted fine, but I realized the other ingredients were hiding the wonderful spicy taste of the Lava Sauce. For those of you curious, the red taco shell tastes the same as a regular one, it’s just colored red to convey that sense of spicy excitement.  My other complaint about the Volcano Taco is the same I have about all Taco Bell tacos: the cheese is UNMELTED. Why, Taco Bell, do you insist on putting the meat on the bottom, piling veggies on top, then sprinkling cold, shredded cheese on top of all of that? Why wouldn’t you just put the cheese either directly under, or directly on top of the warm meat so that it melts? Ridiculous.

The Volcano Burrito was superior to the taco. The Lava Sauce really shined in this one, as it was perfectly dispersed throughout the burrito, and unlike in the taco, cheese was nice and melty. I’m pretty sure I left half my taco but CRUSHED an entire burrito (this is at 11:30 am, right after a big hotel buffet breakfast mind you).  I would definitely get the Volcano Burrito if I ever step foot in a Taco Bell again.

After trying the two Volcano items, the Taco Bell PR team announced it was time for us to “go behind the line and make something.”  Food Beast, in its coverage of this portion of the visit, snapped this photo of me and added the following commentary:

Stand-up comic and food writer John from So Good stood confused, stating that he was unclear about the creativity portion of our visit. He covered himself mentioning that he found pleasure in wrapping the taco, regardless of its simplicity.

Ok, for starters, I was the FIRST one to go down the line, and we were given no direction, so I was thinking, “what the F?” I thought they wanted me to attempt to make something from their actual menu.  Having just crushed a whole burrito, and knowing I wasn’t that hungry, I just started making the double decker taco to see if I could make it right. It was only when people started lining up behind me and making crazy shit that I realized, dammit, I could have made whatever crazy creation I wanted.  Also, if you are thinking that Food Beast’s line of,  “he found pleasure in wrapping the taco” sounds like thinly veiled sexual inneundo, I would say you probably aren’t alone in thinking that.  Do I wish I had made something crazy? Sure. But at that point I was full and wasn’t really eating anything else, just shoveling down the Lava Sauce by the sporkful.

All in all, an interesting trip, which culminated with this adorable group photo. Grub Grade and Scott Roberts went for the “hold a prop from the kitchen” look, while I went with the, “hands-in-the-pocket-because-that-PR-girl-is-hot-and-I’m-too-cool-for-school” look.

To read more about the Taco Bell experience and see other photos, check out Grub Grade, Endless Simmer, Pleasure Palate, Fast Food News, Epic Portions, Scott Roberts and Food Beast. Thanks to all the other terrific bloggers who were a pleasure to experience the trip with and who took rocking photos that made this post possible.

Big thanks to Taco Bell for having us out to Cali, hosting us, and letting us see things behind the scenes. They were professional, well organized and accomodating.  I’m definitely all about the Lava Sauce, so I’d love to see them start selling it in stores at some point. Whether I get the courage to venture into a Taco Bell anytime soon, I can’t say, but who knows, intoxication can make me do interesting things.

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In my online travels, in search for all things food, I often see attempts at innovation that seldom hit their mark.  However, I recently came upon a site, Fancy Fast Food, that tries an interesting angle – the “extreme makeovers of actual fast food items purchased at popular fast food restaurants.”  Apparently, the person/team behind this site buys an assortment of goods from a certain fast food establishment, and thereafter totally deconstructs the food in order to create a new and far more compelling meal.  Hmmm….

In one instance, FFF buys two sack meals from White Castle (along with fried clams) and turns it into Tapas de Castillo Blanco (see above).   
Understanding how they got from A to B requires reading a laundry list of steps ranging from the following tasks:

Bring the remaining Coke to a boil under medium heat in a non-stick saucepan and evaporate it down to a dark, sweet syrup.

Using a food processor, blend the french fries into a pulp with a little water.

Grate the buns with a grater to make a bowl of fine breadcrumbs.

I said the same thing – someone has lots of time on their hands.  However, I do admire the effort, even though I would still not eat any of this stuff, before or after.

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So what kind of genius would make a venn diagram of this nature and propose this sort of cutlery unification? The Ragbag author describes themselves as:

A wack-ademic living in boston. I majored in nomenclature with an emphasis in venn diagramming.

Cool. Well the Ragbag blogger took things a step further than this diagram, getting a hold of a splayd and providing their readers with a review of the utensil which analyzes its spooniness, forkage and knifeability.  The blogger also put together a chart analyzing the performance of the utensil based on key tasks such as scooping and stabbing.

Kind of awesome. What do people think?

H/T to The Wikipedian for alerting me to this post.

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Domino’s Pizza, a client of mine, is behind this innovative new campaign.  GreenGraffiti is a tactic/company that began in Europe in 2006 and Domino’s is one of the first companies to use GreenGraffiti logos in America.  Below is a leaked image of the first of these logos to appear on a sidewalk in a U.S. city.  But it doesn’t stop with this one: 220 more of these Domino’s “American Legends” logo’s will soon be placed around New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

There is a cool twist to this campaign.  As I mentioned, in addition to placing these logos in three different cities, Domino’s has created a bit of a scavenger hunt for their customers. According to Domino’s:

The first 250 people to email pr@dominos.com and submit a photo of them with a Green Graffiti® sidewalk Domino’s logo will receive a $15 Domino’s gift card, good for a Domino’s American Legends pizza.

Click HERE for full details on the contest/giveaway.

For those of you wondering how the  logos like the one above get made, the GreenGraffiti website explains:

With the help of a template and a high pressure water sprayer an advertising message is cleaned out of the dirt. The result is a high impact message and a cleaner street.

Unlike traditional advertising, no trees will be killed, paper printed or ink used.  GreenGraffiti is not just carbon neutral, they are actually carbon NEGATIVE, compensating for 150% of their carbon footprint.  They even invest in a water harvesting project for each liter of water they use.

Pretty cool marketing tactic huh? What do people think of this idea?

Update: Domino’s has uploaded some video of the GreenGraffiti teams putting the logos in place:

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Which of the following are pet peeves you have regarding other people eating?

• Chewing with Their Mouth Open  81%
• Chewing Loudly  75%
• Double-Dipping  57%
• Taking Food From Someone Else’s Plate  52%
• Scraping Their Plate Loudly to Get Every Last Bit of Food  42%
• Eating With Their Fingers  34%
• Not Eating Everything on Their Plate  25%
• Mixing All Food Together Instead of Eating Parts Separately  21%
• None of These  3%

So readers, what are your biggest pet peeves when it comes to food and eating? Any that aren’t on this list? Anything from the list you are surprised to see is more or less of a complaint than you thought?

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(Click on bracket to see a larger, easier to read version)

There are no rules and no criteria other than to answer the question: “What is the #1 meat?” You can base your vote on taste, cost, convenience, prestige, flavor…anything you want.  Just like the NCAA tournament, when a team from the East coast will randomly get sent into the Western bracket, there are a couple minor exceptions with our regions.  For example, Rabbit has been placed in the Poultry Region and the “Red” Meat Region contains a few reddish meats that technically aren’t actually red meat (Lamb, Veal, Venison).

Obviously March is the time of year when people do brackets for everything – and So Good is no exception. I don’t know if something like Meat Madness has been done before, but this is certainly the debut offering of such a tournament on So Good.  There are similar brackets going on right now, such as Washingtonian’s Burger Bracket to determine the best burger in DC.

On Wednesday we will begin voting on our first round match-ups. Two first round match-ups a day for 8 days, then we move on to the second round.  Finally, thanks must be given to one of my readers, Jenelle, who suggested this idea to me 4-5 months ago.  I’ve patiently been sitting on the idea until the NCAA tournament arrived (which was really tough because I LOVE the idea of  a Meat Madness bracket!).

Click “Read More” to see each Region up close and read a little analysis of some of the early match-ups we have to look forward to.

We have four regions, “Red” Meat Region, Poultry Region, Pork Region and Seafood Region. Let’s take a look at each one.

First up, the “Red” Meat region.  Steak (1), Lamb (2), Ground Beef (3) and Veal (4) are the top 4 seeds in this bracket, and I think there is no doubt that Steak and Ground Beef are forces to be reckoned with.  Will Lamb be able to protect its #2 seed? Or will Corned Beef present a threat in the midst of Lent?  Veal and Buffalo could be an interesting first round match-up as well.

The Poultry region presents us with a wide-range of tasty birds – plus Rabbit.  The top four seeds are Chicken (1), Turkey (2), Duck (3) and Rabbit (4).  Will the more widely used and readily available Chicken and Turkey prove impossible to stop? Or will advocates emerge for more tasty alternatives?

The Pork Region sees a bevy of 8 different meats all coming from the same animal.  The top 4 seeds are Bacon (1), Sausage (2), Prosciutto (3) and Ham (4).  Yes, I am aware that Prosciutto IS Ham, but we are going by the English definition here.  According to Wikipedia, “in English the word is almost always used for an aged, dry-cured, spiced Italian ham that is usually sliced thin and served uncooked.”  Bacon has proven to be the darling of the food blogosphere in the past year, but this bracket is stacked from top to bottom. Potential upsets abound with extremely strong lower seeds in Pulled Pork (5), Pepperoni (6) and Ribs (7).

The Seafood Region is just that – seafood.  The top 4 seeds are Lobster (1), Scallops (2), Salmon (3) and Tuna (4).  Like the Pork Region, this region has depth – Crab (6) and Shrimp (5) look like potential first round sleepers, and Clams (8) and Mussels (7) both certainly have their supporters.

Voting on first round match-ups will begin on Wednesday.  Use the comments on this post to predict potential first round upsets, your pick to win the title, or any debates over seeding.  Let the Meat Madness begin!

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Leading up to the Super Bowl, there is usually buzz associated with certain ads – ones that companies hope will make a big splash during the game for whatever product/agenda they are pushing.  However, some ads don’t even need to make the air to hit their mark.  One example is the now infamous PETA ad, which has been rejected by NBC.  This pro-vegetarian campaign has the tag line “Studies Show Vegetarians Have Better Sex,” and shows models doing all kinds of interesting things with vegetables – no, not that interesting.  There is fondling of broccoli, licking of pumpkins, the making of a vegetable gumbo in a hot tub – you get the idea.  See for yourself:

‘Veggie Love’: PETA’s Banned Super Bowl Ad

…And I thought I loved vegetables.

While I think PETA is usually beyond bonkers, I think this campaign hits its mark, and certainly spices up the whole pro-vegetarian movement.

I guess this means I am going to put off my purchase of the Meat Bikini, at least for now.

(If only we could find a way to pair these two squads up, Lingerie Bowl-style.  Imagine the passion on both sides!  Now that’s better than Cardinals/Steelers.)

H/t to Access Hollywood (!) for the top pic.

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This is one of the most wonderful things I have seen in a while.  Considering this nation’s obsession with food and sleeping, I can’t believe the idea of a Hamburger Bed has not come around before. 

That said, it does spark some questions – like wouldn’t the top bun and cheese make sleeping in the burger like sleeping on a charcoal grill? (Is that the point?)  Also, if someone saw you sleeping in the burger, wouldn’t it appear that the burger was eating you?

It should probably surprise no one, but the burger bed not only has a website, but a Facebook page with almost 5,000 friends.  And as soon as I find its Twitter feed, I will start following – I mean, who doesn’t love a good burger?

H/t to Austinist for the story and pict.  More photos on Geekologie.

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The ads will feature a poster reading “Cold Provided By Winter. Warmth Provided by Us.”  The New York Times has a rendering of what these bus shelter ads will look like once installed:

In my opinion this is a terrific marketing idea.  While the cost of installing these 10 ads/heaters will run about $100,000, the value of the media coverage they will get for such an innovative marketing idea will probably be 50 times the cost.  Not to mention, who likes freezing their ass off waiting for the bus? If my regular bus stop was one of the ten selected, and I got to be warm while waiting for the bus this winter, I’d be damn thankful to Stove Top stuffing. Maybe even thankful enough to buy a few boxes.

Ellen Thompson, a brand manager for Stove Top, comments on the new campaign, making the connection between warmth and the Stove Top experience:

Stove Top as a brand has a great equity in the area of warmth…This is an opportunity to expand into a multisensory experience

Indeed. For some lucky commuters in Chicago, Stove Top will no longer just be associated with a mental feeling of warmth, they will actually physically be providing warmth  As part of the campaign, Stove Top will also be promoting their new Quick Cups Instant Stuffing by passing out samples at some of these bus shelters on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the next three weeks.

For a list of the ten bus shelters that will be featuring this promotion, click HERE.

Update: As several of my co-workers point out, won’t these heaters make these bus stops a magnet for homeless people? If this was your bus stop, you might appreciate the warmth from the heater, but you might not be happy if your bus shelter was suddenly teeming with the homeless.  Also, will the homeless population of Chicago become on-the-street, word-of-mouth evangelists for Stove Top stuffing, providers of winter warmth?

Update #2: I’ve got a So Good goodie pack that I will send to any of my Chicago readers who can send me a photo of one of these bus shelters.

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