Buffets and Behavioural Economics in the Modern Age

People are naturally drawn to buffets. Going through long queues of scrumptious food would appear to be straightforward enough, but there may be something more going on than meets the eye. How does food selection take place? It certainly involves a significant amount of consideration -- assessing choices and picking out the ones that attract one's taste -- and may be guided by some form of push or motivation.

The purposeful process of buffet selection has captured the interest of economists, psychologists, and other researchers, which may provide unique economic insights and "a glimpse into the weirdness of human behaviour."

A research in 2008 at Cornell university studied the effects of discounts on an all-you-can-eat pizza deal. It found that although the amount of food that can be consumed is the same -- unlimited -- with or without the discount, when paying less, people tended to eat less. The conclusion arrived at by the researchers was that people consumed food according to their sense of value rather than their appetite.

Economist Michael Leonard, from Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia, wrote about the economics of buffets at Sin City, and gave him insights about fixed costs, excesses and deficits of the marginal revenue of establishments, and cost, price, and value differences.

Buffets get people excited because, when asked to choose between a favourite dish or a wide selection, variety is the preferred choice. This behaviour, is exhibited by capuchin monkeys, echoes the primate behaviour innate in humans. In another study, when presented with ten colours of the candy, people consumed 43 percent more M&Ms than for seven colours. The more options are given, the more hunger is manifested, and the more amount of food is consumed.

This leads to another point in buffet economics -- the glutton factor. The Forbes reports the case of Bill WIsth, a man who spoke up in protest for being turned out of a buffet for eating too much. Although the buffet owner acted a little more discourteous than usual, the Forbes also makes a point by saying:

"When someone offers all-you-can-eat to any customers, those that show up should be ones for whom the amount that they can eat is worth more than the price they expect to pay. After all, if the buffet costs $10 no matter how much you eat then those who eat the most will get the most value out of it. But the average amount consumed can’t exceed the price, otherwise the restaurant will lose money and go out of business. So if the average amount consumed is $16 worth of food, then the restaurant will have to raise the price to above $16. But this means those who ate more than $10 but less than $16 worth of food will no longer find it worthwhile to eat there, so they will stop going, and the average customer left will be those who eat more than $16 worth. This process continues, until there is only one guy left going to the buffet, and he eats $300 worth of fish and is charged exactly $300 for it."

Researches have tried to correlate the number of times people have returned to the buffet table, with a variety of factors including body mass index. The proposition that people who are overweight eat more may be obvious, but researchers try to link seconds or repeat trips to the buffet table with plate size, amount of survey time before picking up the first serving, and facing position in relation to the trays and meins.

There is a perception that buffets are there to offer cheap food. However, according to science, people are happier with buffets that cost more. Cornell Food Lab supports this finding, and reports that inexpensive food, aside from causing people to eat less, also causes people to be unsatisfied with their all-you-can-eat meals. This displays a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, which also gives insight into a person's sense of value.

It can therefore be said that it is better to eat at more expensive buffets, in order to get the most satisfaction out of one's meal. Eating from a large plate, while facing the buffet table, raises the chances of "begging the house" -- that is, getting one's fill and consuming to the heart's content.

Alternatively, it is important to note that value does not equate with cost, and sometimes the people who come out of a buffet happiest are not the ones who come out with a full stomach and an indigestion.

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This Is Why Indian Food Is So Delicious

It's the lack of overlapping flavors, scientists say


Indian food in Doha is lauded for its curries, mouth-burning spices and complex flavor pairings. With its use of cardamom, cayenne, tamarind and other pungent ingredients, the resulting taste combinations are unlike anything found elsewhere around the world. But scientists in India have now discovered exactly why Indian food is so good — it’s the fewer number of overlapping flavors in ingredients.

Researchers at the Indian Institute for Technology examined how frequently overlapping flavor compounds factored into a dish’s ingredients. They reviewed thousands of recipes on TarlaDalal.com, scrutinizing the subtle molecular-level differences that distinguish the cuisine, reports the Washington Post.

“We found that average flavor sharing in Indian cuisine was significantly lesser than expected,” researchers wrote.

In Western cuisines, ingredients are usually paired together for their similar flavors. However, an average Indian dish includes at least seven ingredients, most of which do not contain overlapping flavors. Cayenne, green bell pepper, coriander and garam masala are usually paired with ingredients that have no chemical overlap, but each ingredient brings a unique component when incorporated into the final meal. This creates knockout dishes for a cuisine that uses approximately 200 of the estimated 381 ingredients known in the world.

Source-http://time.com/3731111/indian-food-curry-cuisine-tasty/

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FOODS OF THE MOROCCANS

Morocco, unlike most other African countries, produces all the food it needs to feed its people. Its many home-grown fruits and vegetables include oranges, melons, tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, and potatoes. Five more native products that are especially important in Moroccan cooking are lemons, olives, figs, dates, and almonds. Located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the country is rich in fish and seafood. Beef is not plentiful, so meals are usually built around lamb or poultry.

Flat, round Moroccan bread is eaten at every meal. The Moroccan national dish is the tajine, a lamb or poultry stew. Other common ingredients may include almonds, hard-boiled eggs, prunes, lemons, tomatoes, and other vegetables. The tajine, like other Moroccan dishes, is known for its distinctive flavoring, which comes from spices including saffron, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, and ground red pepper. The tajine's name is taken from the distinctive earthenware dish with a cone-shaped top in which it is cooked and served. Another Moroccan dietary staple is couscous, made from fine grains of a wheat product called semolina. It is served many different ways, with vegetables, meat, or seafood.
Sweets play a very important role in the Moroccan diet. Every household has a supply of homemade sweet desserts made from almonds, honey, and other ingredients. Mint tea is served with every meal in Morocco. It is sweetened while it is still in the pot.

Chicken Tajine with Almonds and Prunes

Ingredients

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
• ½ teaspoon powdered saffron (optional)
• 3 short cinnamon sticks
• 4 ounces butter
• 2 large onions
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 strip lemon peel
• 1 pound dried prunes
• Blanched almonds
• Fresh watercress or mint

Procedure

1. Combine the oil and ground spices in a large bowl.
2. Cut the chicken into cubes and chop the onion finely. Put the chicken and onion into the bowl with the oil and spices. Combine well and let stand for 30 minutes.
3. Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the chicken, searing (browning) them lightly on all sides.
4. Add any remaining marinade and enough water to cover. Simmer until chicken is tender (about 30 minutes).
5. While the chicken is cooking, put the prunes in a small saucepan, cover with water and bring the water to a bowl. Remove the pan from the heat and let them stand for 20 minutes.
6. Drain the prunes, return them to the pan, and ladle a little liquid from the meat pan over the prunes. Simmer the prunes for 5 minutes.
7. Add the lemon peel, cinnamon sticks, and half the sugar to the prunes.
8. Stir the remaining sugar into the meat.
9. Arrange the meat on a serving platter. Add the prunes to the meat, and pour the sauce from the prunes over the meat and prunes.
10. Boil the remaining liquid from the meat rapidly to reduce it by half and pour over the meat and prunes.
11. Melt a small amount of butter in a saucepan and brown the almonds lightly. Garnish the tajine with the almonds and watercress or mint.
12. Serve with rice or couscous.

Serves 10 to 12.

In Morocco, tajine is the name of both the stew and the covered clay pot it is baked in. The tajine may be called the "Moroccan crockpot" because it is used to slow-cook meat dishes.

EPD Photos/Yzza

Moroccan Mint Tea

Ingredients

• 1½ Tablespoons green tea (or 2 teabags of green tea)
• Boiling water
• 3 Tablespoons sugar (or to taste)
• Handful (about 2 Tablespoons) of fresh or dried spearmint leaves

Procedure

1. Put the tea in a 2-pint teapot and fill it with boiling water.
2. Let the tea steep (soak) for 2 minutes.
3. Add mint leaves and sugar to taste.

Read more: http://www.foodbycountry.com/Kazakhstan-to-South-Africa/Morocco.html#ixzz3jjlCDA1i

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ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS IN SRI LANKAN CUISINE

The building blocks of Sri Lankan cuisine are rice, coconut, and native tropical fruits and vegetables. Every Sri Lankan cookbook I've found has multiple pages on the preparation of rice, with one, Ceylon Cookery, devoting five full pages to the topic. The island grows some 15 varieties of rice (down from 280 just 50 years ago, and 400 in times before that), some of which are used for various types of rice flour pancakes (called hoppers) and rice noodles (called string hoppers).




When asked if I recommend Sri Lanka as a vacation destination, I'd say yes to everyone—unless they're allergic to coconut. Stacks of yellow king coconut are fixtures on the side of the road, ready to be hacked open by a young man or little old lady wielding a machete. The liquid inside puts commercial coconut water to shame; the real stuff has a perfectly clean, sweet-without-the-sticky taste. (Pro tip: after you finish your king coconut, hand it back to the vendor, who will crack it open and craft a spoon from the side, so you can scrape out the coconut meat within.)




But coconut's not just for drinking: every rice and curry is served with pol sambal, a scraped coconut condiment that varies in spiciness from table to table. Coconut is a major ingredient in the greens dish mallum, and, of course, it's a big player in the island's sweets. When I started testing Sri Lankan recipes, the first thing I did was buy a giant bag of desiccated coconut.

Stroll through the countryside and the fragrant smell of cardamom and curry leaves will inevitably grab you. In the city, piles of turmeric and fennel seed sit in ceramic pots at the market, waiting patiently for their turn in a curry. These spices are fundamental to the cuisine, serving as the base for the many curries, sambals (relishes), sundals (salads), and mallums (greens dishes) served with most meals. Black pepper is native to the island and was the most powerful spice in Sri Lankan cooking before spicy peppers arrived on colonial era trading ships. Black pepper curries still pop up on menus, and are worth seeking out for the original flavors of the island—and because they offer an entirely different type of heat.


Once chili peppers arrived, they took off: over 60 types grow on the island, and you can judge the spiciness of most dishes by how much of the blush of red pepper, used fresh or dried, it has taken on. To continue making a curry, you'll likely need fenugreek, cardamom, cumin, fennel seed, cloves, and coriander, all used whole or ground. From underground, garlic, ginger, and turmeric are often added in chunks, while curry leaves and pandan leaves are used fresh. Finally, a list of Sri Lankan curry ingredients would be incomplete without the local cinnamon, often called Ceylon cinnamon, after the island's former name. (What we usually call cinnamon in the US is actually the less subtle and balanced cassia, rather than the warm, gently spicy and floral-scented Ceylon cinnamon).

The real distinction of Sri Lankan cuisine is not the individual spices used, but the prominence with which they're featured. Mercy John, the Tamil proprietress ofVictoria Guest House on the east coast of Sri Lanka and a masterful cook, says that all spices should be fried in mustard oil before they are used in a curry. Ceylon Cookery, an instruction manual geared toward Sri Lankan young people just starting their own households, offers instructions on unroasted, roasted, and fried spice curries. Whatever the starting base of the curry, it is often topped in the end with a smattering of fried spices (the process of frying them and adding at the end is called tempering), so that vivid flavor is never missing.

There's one more key component to many dishes: Maldive fish. It's bonito tuna that's boiled, dried in intense sun until rock-hard, and shredded. While it's used to add savoriness, it is not as pungent as the fish sauce or dried or fermented fish or shrimp of Asian cuisines further East. "Care should be taken," Ceylon Cookeryinstructs, "not to allow the Maldive fish flavour to predominate over other flavours." Meat and fish curries are generally left to develop their own strong flavors, but nearly every vegetable dish gets the fish's umami injection. It is nearly imperceptible, other than an underlying boost to the flavor, much like that of MSG—you'll hardly notice a "fishy" flavor.

Source-http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/what-is-sri-lankan-food-like-cuisine-guide-international-travel-curry-string-hoppers-coconut-sambal.html

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The History of Thai Food

Thai food is internationally famous. Incidentally, it is also Thai food in Doha is very popular.

Whether chilli-hot or comparatively bland, harmony is the guiding principle behind each dish. Thai cuisine is essentially a marriage of centuries-old Eastern and Western influences harmoniously combined into something uniquely Thai. Characteristics of Thai food depend on who cooks it, for whom it is cooked, for what occasion, and where it is cooked. Dishes can be refined and adjusted to suit all palates.

Originally, Thai cooking reflected the characteristics of a waterborne lifestyle. Aquatic animals, plant and herbs were major ingredients. Large chunks of meat were eschewed. Subsequent influences introduced the use of sizeable chunks to Thai cooking. With their Buddhist background, 

Thais shunned the use of large animals in big chunks. Big cuts of meat were shredded and laced with herbs and spices. Traditional Thai cooking methods were stewing and baking, or grilling. Chinese influences saw the introduction of frying, stir-frying and deep-frying. Culinary influences from the 17th century onwards included Portuguese, Dutch, French and Japanese. Chillies were introduced to Thai cooking during the late 1600s by Portuguese missionaries who had acquired a taste for them while serving in South America. Thais were very adapt at "Siameseising" foreign cooking methods, and substituting ingredients. The ghee used in Indian cooking was replaced by coconut oil, and coconut milk substituted for other dairy products.

Overpowering pure spices were toned down and enhanced by fresh herbs such as lemon grass and galanga. Eventually, fewer and less spices were used in Thai curries, while the use of fresh herbs increased. 

It is generally acknowledged that Thai curries burn intensely, but briefly, whereas other curries, with strong spices, burn for longer periods. Instead of serving dishes in courses, a Thai meal is served all at once, permitting diners to enjoy complementory combinations of different tasters.

A proper Thai meal should consist of a soup, a curry dish with condiments, a dip with accompanying fish and vegetables. A spiced salad may replace the curry dish. The soup can also be spicy, but the curry should be replaced by a non-spiced item. There must be harmony of tastes and textures within individual dishes and the entire meal.

Source-http://thaigrocer.com/aboutthaifood.html

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