Friday, January 30, 2009

And before you ask, no, it's not "cold"

Does anyone really eat cole slaw?

I guess they do, sometimes. I know I've seen people put it on barbecue sandwiches. But it sure seems like a lot of restaurants include a little foam cup of the stuff with every meal, and I can't remember the last time I saw one of those cups empty, a spork wedged triumphantly into it's base.

I feel bad throwing out food, but as with the stuffing I mentioned last week, I can only recognize one version of the dish, and that's my mothers's. So unless Cane's is willing to add some little chunks of apple to the mix, I'm not going to be won over.

I think the whole inclusion of slaw with fast food meals might just be a consumer-perception thing. On one level, one more item means more for your money, never mind that some cabbage and mayonnaise didn't exactly break Long John Silver's treasure chest. On another level, cabbage is a vegetable, which gives the whole thing a much more healthy, down-home vibe. And that's a comfort when your other side dish was likely fried in the same grease as the main course.

I wonder about the people that work in those restaurants, toiling to mix up a fresh batch of cole slaw everyday. Do they sit there, grinding up all that cabbage, thinking about how many cups of it are going to be thrown out? All that hard work just so that, maybe, one guy out of twenty will take a bite or two.*

*So I guess it's kinda like making an independent film.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

I used to make 160 lbs of cole slaw a day back during my reign over LJS and I can tell you that every single time (my arm elbow deep in cabbage) I was thinking if people saw me making this they would not want to eat it anymore.