Quoting Michael Loo to Nancy Backus on 10-02-18 09:04 <=-

Could be interesting to go try out some of his restaurants, then... :)

If you should have the money and the stomach.

Maybe on the latter, probably not on the former, from the sounds of it.... ;)

He's big enough and famous enough to have a raft of
assistants, and as we've noted earlier, even the best
of operations can have the occasional dudly peculiarity.

The lack of sufficient funds probably will save from experiencing the
dudly peculiarities, then... ;)

One might guess that Marcus Samuelsson or Heston Blumenthal
would have a better record avoiding dudly employees than your
local Wendy's or Howard Johnson's.

One would hope... of course, HoJo's doesn't even hire any more... ;0

I'm not finding out any time soon. If they're still
there when I visit again, they certainly will have
gone weird.

And be just that much closer to being subject to tossing... ;)

I should actually be visiting for a couple toward the
end of this month but won't report unless something
is spectacularly off.

OK... :)

So I did visit, and there was a pound of Cheddar that I
suggested she put in a paper bag rather than its plastic
Ziploc to "let it breeze a little," but that was six months
ago, and I discovered it in the back of the cheese drawer,
hard as a brick. It did make nice crunchies when grated and
cooked, though.

Not a total waste... good... ;)

they'd've been any better, though... might have been like the Goetze's,
a bit of disappointment from those remembered of old.... Also Voortman has packages of various flavor wafers, but in sugar-free... I decided against them also....

Sugar-free wafers would be odd, but if the filling
was made with maltitol or a similar sugar alcohol
that melts in a thermophilic way, they'd also be
interesting if just in terms of the mouth sensations.

I forget which "sugar" they use... I was buying them for MJ when I used
to get them...

One sensible way to deal is to mix real and fake sugars.
For me, half and half is good, and cutting down to 1/3
real can be acceptable.

Which, I think, is how Ruth does it... I don't think that the Voortmans sugar-free have any real (other than alcohol) sugars in them...

I really have to look suspiciously at people who don't
like chocolate, though.

In a case like this, I always looked at it as more for me.... ;)

There is that, but to me, chocolatophobia is a symptom
of an underlying deficiency of character.

Some people might think that of someone that doesn't like blue
cheese.... ;)

I was lucky, but also the time seemed ripe for a'lightning strike.
I always travel with earplugs and eyeshades at the ready just in
case of similar situations.

Be Prepared. ;)

What, always? Yes, always. What, always? Well, almost
always.

[chuckle]

And there is the additional issue of agreements with
the individual countries, which can complicate things
even more. I'd suspect that the US has advantageous
relationships with most English-speaking nations, and
perhaps the closer the better, so Canada may be a
special case in itself.

Possibly... maybe more so in times past.... nowadays there seems to be
some lessening of the strong bonds we used to have...

One hears with surprise and delight that the US and
Canada have agreed on some kind of trade deal - one that
pointedly leaves out Mexico and Central America, so we'll
have to see about that.

Actually, it was first agreed upon with Mexico, so now it is all
three... US, Mexico and Canada... just doesn't include any of Central
America, as far as I know....

Our size, wealth of resources both tangible and
intangible, and heretofore moral high ground make
us a big player, but as with (say) wheat or beef,
if we were suddenly to disappear, the others would
make do in a hurry, as they would have to.

Yeah... I know that... Nobody is totally indispensable and nations
are the same.... :)

Hate to say it, but China and India may be the new
indispensables. My friend Jack said a third of a
century ago that the salvation of the US economy
was going to be the rise of the purveyorship of
information and expertise, and we would have to cede
control of traditional tangible goods to others. He
held an optimistic view on this, but one might expect
him to, as he was a member of the intellectual
establishment, having ties to USAID, Harvard, and the
Ford Foundation.

As you said above, we'll have to see about that.... and how it all plays
out...

ttyl neb

... <CLINK> <CLINK> ... Two cents deposited. |-)

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