On Norms

Some might say that I am norm seeking. Others a norm deviant. I'm not sure it's germain to the conversation at hand, but in everything that is scalable there must be a scale. In anything where there is a spectrum, bads and goods, there must be an average. There must be a benchmark. There must be a norm.

For restaurants, and my 1-5 scale, these are your 2s, maybe on their best day a 3. They are where you go, spend a few dollars, and get a decent meal that *should be dependable. If you are in Tulsa or Moscow, you should be eating basically the same thing. Also, if you live in a smaller town, these might be your only options. That's ok, because they *shouldn't disappoint you.

Here are some of the more common standards I use. Also of note, something starts being "expensive" when it costs more than Outback.  Anything around the price of a meal at Applebee's is average, and fast food is cheap.  This is by no means exhaustive, but meant to be a fun little exercise...

American: Applebee's, TGI Friday's, Chili's.

Burgers: Red Robin.

Fast Food: Taco Bell, Wendy's

Fried Chicken: Zaxby's or Chik-Filet

Steak: Outback.

Italian: Olive Garden.

Breakfast/Bakeries: Panera Bread.

Sandwiches: Subway, Quiznos, Jersey Mike's, Blimpes.

Chinese: PF Chang's, and anywhere with the words Dragon, Panda, Express, Lucky, and Garden in the name.

Japanese: Anywhere with "Sushi" or "Tokyo" in the name, and mall sushi.

Thai: Anywhere with the word "Thai" in it.

Vietnamese: Anywhere with the word "Pho" or "Vietnamese" in it.

And finally, Mexican/Tex-Mex: Chipotle (often 4 stars of deliciousness!). 


You may also may enjoy a somewhat interesting quirk, I deal in the currency of Chipotle burritos when I eat out. For example, a $12 meal is two Chipotle burritos, a $30 one is five, etc. Because Chipotle is so delicious, you get a good sense of the relative value of your meal when you consider how many Chipotle burritos you are paying for it. (This is not product placement, I have not been offered any $ or burritos to talk up Chipotle. I will accept bribes in Chipotle burritos though.)

Realizations

Recently, I became acquainted with a number of excellent food blogs from far flung locations around the world.  It became clear to me how incredibly important good organization was on the blogs.  The lack of useful, obvious labels makes searching extremely tough when looking for specific things.  In addition, pictures really are worth a thousand words, so you should be seeing alot more of those things on Foodbibber (and more labels will be added on legacy posts).  For your reference, here are a few of the blogs:

A Life Worth Eating - Adam Goldberg in New York City, NY
Devour The World - Jenny from the block (kidding)
Istanbul Eats - Two Dudes in Istanbul
{Insert Food} - A Couple of World Travelers
Fare to Remember - Mostly Recipes

And for a picture, something that I just couldn't bring myself to eat, a Turkish Kumpir (baked potato) with fixings.  This picture belongs to I Eated It and actually features a Kumpir that they got from Mr. Kumpir in Vancouver, British Columbia.  It reflects the classic ones pretty well, which are basically the "corn dogs" of Turkey.  People just love to buy them and walk along the beach, don't ask me why...

Labels

A word on labels.

I am trying to decide what labels will be the most useful to readers.  Obviously location is a big one.  Then Best and Worst, Average, and star ratings, 1 Star, 2 Star, 3 Star, etc., without any .5s thrown in there.  Any other thoughts?