Sundry sentences, somewhat scattered:
Sep. 29th, 2011 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mni*Frozen "Complete" meals: With Entree, Vegetable, and Dessert.
Why do they still do this? Really -- the dessert might ordinarily be very tasty. But broccoli tastes really weird with "Apple Caramel Crumble" mixed in. And Apple Crumble tastes funny with that drop of tomato sauce that escaped its compartment. Truly.
If they really want to entice people into buying their product by including a dessert, why not make it a frozen dessert (that could be removed before the food tray goes into the oven or microwave), and saved for after you've finished your main course? What a concept! That would also allow it to melt just slightly from rock hard to soft serve, but still cold. A couple of suggestions: rounding out a "health food" dinner with frozen blueberry and lemon yogurt (with soy yogurt for vegan meals), or a decadent "home-style favorite" with an ice cream sandwich... or even a warm brownie -- that you can warm for 10-20 seconds separately.
*One thing that's always baffled me: As a wheelchair user, when I approach a set of heavy double doors, nine times out of ten, a well-meaning Able-bodied type person will rush forward to "help" -- so far, so good [note, below] -- except they almost always jump to the middle of the doors, and try to open both at once, by standing in the middle of them, in some contorted version of a spread-eagle pose, giving me far less space to get through than I would have, otherwise, if I'd tried to open the door by myself.
The glib part of me wonders if walking has the unfortunate side effect of walking is that it interfere's with a person's ability to think logically. But then, I started to get a serious glimmer of an idea why:
People have been taught to believe two memes: 1) Helping a Disabled Person is a Virtuous Sacrifice, and 2) The more Difficult your Sacrifice, the More Virtuous your Sacrifice.
And the people who hold these memes in their heads are thinking more about how difficult it is for themselves than how helpful it is for the disabled person.
*"Procedural" Television dramas are very popular now -- they take up about 90%, by my guesstimate, of the evening TV. They're favorites of TV execs because it's easy to break them into segments where commercials can be aired. They have drama built in, and they're the same formula every week, so they can be written quickly, and you don't have to spend a lot of time on exposition. But they're either Doctor Shows or Police Shows. And after a while, they all sort of blend together and become low-res copies of their competition. Surely, there must be other professional fields that follow a regular procedure in a day's work than doctors and police, right? (I was just commenting to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
welfycat tonight that I'd love to see the Criminal Minds cast as marine biologists -- They'd be on a boat together. How would that not be awesome?). There could be restaurant dramas, and architect dramas. Or how about hotel staff dramas? We do have Pan-Am this year, at least, but I don't know if that counts as "procedural." I doubt it.
[note] (excepthaddayr points out how it's really not so good, here: On Understanding
Why do they still do this? Really -- the dessert might ordinarily be very tasty. But broccoli tastes really weird with "Apple Caramel Crumble" mixed in. And Apple Crumble tastes funny with that drop of tomato sauce that escaped its compartment. Truly.
If they really want to entice people into buying their product by including a dessert, why not make it a frozen dessert (that could be removed before the food tray goes into the oven or microwave), and saved for after you've finished your main course? What a concept! That would also allow it to melt just slightly from rock hard to soft serve, but still cold. A couple of suggestions: rounding out a "health food" dinner with frozen blueberry and lemon yogurt (with soy yogurt for vegan meals), or a decadent "home-style favorite" with an ice cream sandwich... or even a warm brownie -- that you can warm for 10-20 seconds separately.
*One thing that's always baffled me: As a wheelchair user, when I approach a set of heavy double doors, nine times out of ten, a well-meaning Able-bodied type person will rush forward to "help" -- so far, so good [note, below] -- except they almost always jump to the middle of the doors, and try to open both at once, by standing in the middle of them, in some contorted version of a spread-eagle pose, giving me far less space to get through than I would have, otherwise, if I'd tried to open the door by myself.
The glib part of me wonders if walking has the unfortunate side effect of walking is that it interfere's with a person's ability to think logically. But then, I started to get a serious glimmer of an idea why:
People have been taught to believe two memes: 1) Helping a Disabled Person is a Virtuous Sacrifice, and 2) The more Difficult your Sacrifice, the More Virtuous your Sacrifice.
And the people who hold these memes in their heads are thinking more about how difficult it is for themselves than how helpful it is for the disabled person.
*"Procedural" Television dramas are very popular now -- they take up about 90%, by my guesstimate, of the evening TV. They're favorites of TV execs because it's easy to break them into segments where commercials can be aired. They have drama built in, and they're the same formula every week, so they can be written quickly, and you don't have to spend a lot of time on exposition. But they're either Doctor Shows or Police Shows. And after a while, they all sort of blend together and become low-res copies of their competition. Surely, there must be other professional fields that follow a regular procedure in a day's work than doctors and police, right? (I was just commenting to
welfycat tonight that I'd love to see the Criminal Minds cast as marine biologists -- They'd be on a boat together. How would that not be awesome?). There could be restaurant dramas, and architect dramas. Or how about hotel staff dramas? We do have Pan-Am this year, at least, but I don't know if that counts as "procedural." I doubt it.[note] (except
haddayr points out how it's really not so good, here: On Understanding
no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 11:47 am (UTC)I've never even seen one of these. I should probably actually look in the freezers at Iceland outside the veg section some time.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 07:51 pm (UTC)And the variety's gotten better, in this last generation, than it was when I was a kid. I might have rosemary roasted chicken with sweet potatoes, carrots and onions tonight for supper.
"Complete meals With dessert!! (yay)" was a bigger part of "TV dinners" between the '50s and '70s than the are now. But you still see them occasionally.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 09:45 pm (UTC)I confess I've been resorting to "fresh" soups for some of my veg while I've been very ill and my fruit intake has gone right down too. I don't think my diet has ever been hypothetically less healthy and yet it's probably still better than many people's (whether through choice or poverty) so I'm very lucky. And I could afford to buy the fruit and veg I can't grow/gather myself.
I know that frozen meals seem to have mostly become cheaper and more varied and probably better quality but I don't have enough knowledge to compare. I suspect few British people would've consumed one before the 70s and they didn't become common until the 80s. My family got our first freezer in the 80s, and we were far from the last wave, and we were early with a microwave in the 80s.
I also suspect that a contemporary British "ready meal" is more likley to consist of main course + sweets/biscuits/crisps/snacks than a traditional two or three course meal. And, being British, there're lots of curry/Indian and "Chinese" options, probably as many as trad British dishes. I'll have to go and look and maybe try some when the cold weather arrives.
Apart from frozen/thawed food I've presumable occasionally been served in pubs (I don't eat out often), I've eaten one "ready meal" at home. It was an Iceland cheapo frozen shepherd's pie (i.e. lamb mince topped with mashed potato) containing unexpectedly!minted peas, which was an odd effect. If I'd made it at home then there also would've been carrots and tomatoes in with the mince and probably sweet potatoes in the mash topping and NO mint, heh!