The Liberal Order

Is it really worth the $1,250,000?

A former chef seeks to sell his "Million Dollar Steak Recipe" on eBay.
Story here.

Gourmet Foods Auction Site

eBay benefits tremendously from network externalities. But there are niche markets that can successfully compete against eBay. Here is one such site. It's sparse right not, but so too was eBay when it first started. Here's a news story about the site.

Stories from the Wait Staff

Are good tippers compensated?

Conversely, if you are a regular GOOD tipper, the servers may fight over the chance to wait on you. If I see one of my regulars sitting in a fellow server's station, I make sure to tell the server that he must get the best of service. These people are also the ones who get special favors, occasional food samples, and other freebies--whatever we can lavish upon them. A customer who tips well is almost always a pleasure to wait on in many respects.

And what about penalties to those who stiff the wait staff?

If you are one of those despicable types who doesn’t believe in tipping and who frequents the same restaurants repeatedly, I GUARANTEE the servers are doctoring your food or throwing it on the floor and then back onto your plate or worse. If you don’t tip at least 15%, I bet you have ingested your server’s saliva at least once.

The restaurant profession has the same percentage of crazy people that other jobs have. People can be really sick, especially after suffering repeated rudenesses without an option of talking back.

Servers pass the work around in the restaurant to other servers when you come in again. Oh yes, they’ll be ready for you. You’ll just never know it.

Stories from the Stained Apron.

Update: Tyler Cowen has a nice post on tipping here. Here's the story from other wait staff on customer service.

Tipping is an odd practice, mostly because it doesn't reward relative skills. It's efficient in the sense that it solves a principal-agent problem: the restauranteur leaves the job of monitoring wait staff to customers, who are in the best position to guage whether they are pleased with the service. But a restaurant's customers may not be knowledgeable of relative talents. Wait staff differ in skills, which may not be rewarded if a large part of their compensation is paid by customers. Most work diligently in order to receive added compensation, but relative wages may not reflect relative performance. An exceptional waiter who serves a cheap customer gets stiffed while a mediocre waiter lucks out and gets a good tipper. Over time luck is reduced to averages, but these averages again do not reflect merit.

The other problem is that tipping is a learned behavior. Many of us are ignorant of who, what, why, where, and when to tip. I tip my waiter but am I also expected to tip the woman who cuts my hair? What about room service at the hotel? They already charge me a substantial "delivery service fee." Do I discount for poor service? (This is a debatable point. some note that waiters and waitresses have bad days too, and should not be penalized for having one. But I am not certain if it's just a bad day or an individual who sucks at what they do and needs proper signals to find alternative work. Small tips send the proper signal.) 

And the fact that some services are tipped at 10% while others are tipped at 20 to 30% leaves me wondering about the rent seeking that goes on. Wait staff used to receive tips of 10%; now it's 20 to 30%. They must have better lobbyists.

Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide

Tyler Cowen posts the seventeenth edition of his Washington, DC ethnic dining guide.

Tyler offers the following four general tips on finding a good restaurant and ordering food.

1. Avoid dishes that are "ingredients-intensive."  Raw ingredients in America -  vegetables, butter, bread, meats, etc. - are below world standards.  Even most underdeveloped countries have better raw ingredients than we do, at least if you have a U.S. income to spend there, and often even if one doesn't.  Ordering the plain steak in Latin America may be a great idea, but it is usually a mistake in Northern Virginia.  Opt for dishes with sauces and complex mixes of ingredients.  Go for dishes that are "composition-intensive."
2. Appetizers often are better than main courses.  Meals composed of appetizers and side dishes alone can be very satisfying.  Thai and Lebanese restaurants provide the classic examples of this principle.
3. Avoid desserts.  Most ethnic restaurants in America, no matter how good, usually fall flat with the desserts.  Especially if the restaurant is Asian.
4. Order more than you plan to eat.

I have not always agreed with some specific recommendations of Tyler's, but overall he does pick winners. For instance, he pans L'Auberge Chez Francois, which I found to be quite good, although I agree that it is probably overrated. I agree with Tyler's assessment of Mexican food (i.e., there are no outstanding Mexican restaurants). But this is true around much of the country, not just in the DC area. I lived in Coronado, California and Corpus Christi, Texas and have experienced excellent Mexican food. I have never had a good Mexican dining experience in DC in thirty years. I don't live there now, and by chance I came across an excellent Mexican restaurant--El Ranchero in Iowa City, Iowa of all places. (Actually, Iowa City is an up-and-coming small city. It is an economically dynamic college town (city), centered largely around the University of Iowa's research hospital.)

But I always questioned Tyler's point #1 above. Why is it that raw ingredients in the U.S. are so below the standards of the rest of the world? If Tyler is correct--and I'm not doubting his assertion, I just don't know--why has the wealthiest and most innovative free market country in the history of the world failed to develop markets in superior raw ingredients? Is it that we simply don't find the marginal value of exceptional primary ingredients worth the marginal cost? (Innovations in agricultural technology have given us quantity, not quality.) Is the palate of the average American simply sub par? (Given the lineup on broadcast television I tend to think so. But then again, I have heard that these same idiot shows are popular around the world.) Are American chefs simply adept at creating sauces and "complex mixes" giving American restaurants a comparative advantage in masking our low quality raw ingredients, sufficient enough to create a superbe meal? Or more likely, is dining in this country not a cultural experience like it is in much of the rest of the world? We simply fill our stomachs and move on to other activities (it is a chore to be endured), while in other countries (Italy, for example) dining is often a two hour social event.

Be a Drunk Without the Booze

For those who simply want to get plastered without the bitter aftertaste. Here's the story.

First, it's important to understand the way inhalation affects the body. Normally, when you drink a glass of wine, say, or a shot of vodka, alcohol is absorbed over time, through the lining of your stomach and small intestine (roughly 10 percent to 15 percent in the stomach, 85 percent to 90 percent in the small intestine). The presence of food, especially starchy food, can slow this process further. When a shot of vodka or whiskey is poured into an AWOL machine and inhaled, however, alcohol enters the lungs and diffuses directly into the bloodstream causing a much more rapid and potentially more intense buzz.

What a useful invention! The user can inhale alcohol on the way to his Sex Without Partners meetings.