Thousands of people will head to the movies this weekend. When they arrive, many will head for the concession stand to grab a few snacks. After all, what goes better with a movie than fresh popcorn? But if you’re watching your calories (or just trying to eat healthy), be warned. Mindless snacking during a show can add hundreds of calories to your daily intake.
During a Cornell study, theater patrons with large buckets of popcorn ate nearly twice as much as those with medium buckets. And it gets even worse: some of the large buckets had two-week-old kernels instead of freshly popped corn. Those with the stale popcorn still ate 34 percent more than those with medium buckets. It just goes to further prove that absentminded snacking is your enemy.
To help you make better choices at the movies, the authors of “Eat This, Not That!” developed a guide to movie theater snack survival. The results are interesting. They say the worst snack at the movies is buttered popcorn. The butter used at the theater triples the calories and is full of trans fat (39 g fat total for a medium!). Instead, they recommend a soft pretzel (plain). It has no fat and only 290 calories.
If you are a Lethal Weapon fan, you probably remember the drive thru scene with Leo Getz. He uses some colorful language to describe why you always get the wrong order at the drive thru. If you can overlook the language, it’s a hilarious scene that also holds some truth. By the time you figure out they gave you the wrong order, you’re too far away to go back and get it fixed — you’re just screwed.
If you want to reduce your odds of having a bad experience, you might want to frequent the best drive thru’s in America as determined by Insula Research’s annual Drive-Thru Performance Study. This ranking of the top 20 fast food drive thru’s in America measures their performance in four categories: order accuracy, speaker clarity, speed, and best menu board.
And the results are:
Chick-fil-A
Taco Bell
Del Taco
Krystal
Wendy’s
Chick-fil-A earned the highest composite score in the survey, topping the competition in two of the four categories: order accuracy and speaker clarity. Chick-fil-A also had the friendliest service measured by demeanor, politeness, and eye contact. Wendy’s ranked number one in the “Speed” category, and Whataburger won top honors for the best menu board.
To read the full results, check out the article in this month’s QSR Magazine .
Have you ever stood in front of a menu at a fast food restaurant and wished you could get something else? According to Mental Floss, fast food restaurants across the country have many secret items that aren’t advertised on their menus. You just have to know to ask for them. I find this fascinating, and I can’t wait to try it out!
Here are the ones I think are the most interesting:
Jamba Juice has secret candy-inspired smoothies including white gummy bear, starbursts, fruity pebbles and PB&J.
Wendy’s offers a “meat cube” or “grand slam” consisting of four meat patties stacked on a bun.
Starbucks will give you a “short” coffee if their smallest size (tall) is too big for you.
Chipotle and Taco Bell will make almost anything as long as they have the ingredients for it. Taco Bell is also rumored to have a yummy green chili sauce at most locations, but you won’t find it on the menu.
McDonalds will give you a Neapolitan mikshake — chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry layered in a cup.
In-N-Out Burger offers “protein style” burgers wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun. They also let you order any combo of meat and cheese. For example, if you want 3 beef patties and 3 slices of cheese, order a 3 x 3. Finally, there’s the Flying Dutchman: two slices of cheese between two patties — no bun.
Do you know of others? If so, share them by commenting below. For the Mental Floss Top 10 list, click here.
I’ve been to a few restaurants trialing table-based electronic payment systems, but London’s Inamo restaurant has taken the high tech restaurant concept to the next level. At this Oriental restaurant, you can sit down, browse through an interactive menu, and place your order without needing a server.
What’s really different about their system is that there are no embedded screens or small computer devices placed on the table. Everything is projected from above. When you sit down, the table is activated. After perusing the menu and ordering, you can play games like Battleship with your dining partner while you are waiting for your food to arrive.
Don’t like the look of your table? Change it. There are several virtual tablecloths to suit the taste of a wide variety of diners. Select pictures, colors or bright patterns. You can change it several times during your meal — a different tablecloth for each course. What fun!
Finally, you can get a bird’s eye view of the action in the kitchen and watch Inamo’s chefs cook your meal. It’s probably not as exciting as Hell’s Kitchen, but it might be entertaining if you need a break from the tabletop games.
If you need to make transportation arrangements after dinner, you can use the system to book a taxi or browse a map of the tube. When you’re ready to leave, you can view your bill and pay using the system — no waiters needed!
It’s a clever concept. I don’t know why more restaurants haven’t done it yet. Maybe it won’t be long before some of these pop up in the states. When it happens, I’ll definitely be making a reservation.
For a quick view of what it looks like, check out the video below.
Sushi bars, Martini bars, oxygen bars — all are trendy places to hang out and indulge. Now there’s a new place threatening to encroach on the domain of these popular hotspots. It’s located in The Colony, and it’s a Cereal Bar. Yes, that’s right…a Cereal Bar!
At what may be the first stand-alone cereal bar in the Metroplex, you can choose from 36 different varieties of cereals — and more are being added all the time. The Cereal Bar offers healthy options along with the sugary favorites that everyone loves. Plus, they offer a huge selection of extra toppings including fresh fruit.
According to the owner, Walter Corea, the most popular cereal is Cocoa Puffs. Apparently, it’s not just for kids. So, if you’re craving some gourmet cereal, head over to Main Street in the Colony, just north of state Highway 121 and check out the new Cereal Bar.
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