Monday, February 28, 2011

Restaurant sells breast milk ice cream

There is one restaurant in London selling breast milk ice cream, and called it Baby Gaga. Having breast milk inside your ice cream, don't you think it is a weird thing? For me, I couldn't accept!!
http://www.foodservice.com/news/human-interest/restaurant-sells-breast-milk-ice-cream/

No more Shark Fin Soup

Recently, California legislators have introduced a bill to ban the possession, sale and distribution of shark fins used in a traditional soup.  Personally, I like the Shark Fin Soup. Shark Fin iS consider to a luxury soup in Chinese cuisine. Not everyone can afford it in the past. A bowl of Shak Fin Soup cost about $40. Chinese people use Shark Fin Soup to treat their VIP. In the past few years, the demand of Shark Fin Soup has been increasing. The actitives said must be stop selling shark fin for protecting the ocean. Supporters of the ban say shark finning is a cruel practice in which fishermen slice the shark's fin off while the animal is still alive and then throw the shark back in the sea to die. After the bill has been introduced, some shark fin fan said they eat shark fin just like they are eating the ocean killer, since the shark eats lots of fiishes. However, many other people agree with the bill. We should protect the ocean, protect the mother earth. Even I am a fan of shark fin soup, I am not eating any more shark fin soup after knowing how the shark fin comes.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

The Psychology of Menu Design

I have always been interested in the menu design. Everytime when I go to a restaurant, the first thing I look at is their decoration, then the menu. I always  have some assessments in my head: Is the menu match the decoration? Is the menu easy to read?...
Yesterday, I read an article about the menu design from http://www.restaurant.org/tools/magazines/rusa/magArchive/year/article/?ArticleID=162. I agree with the points the articel points out. A menu is really the matter of a restaurant. A menu can tell a lot of a restaurant. Like the article says, "The menu is part of your brand identity. It's a reflection of who you are in the marketplace. If you have a dirty menu, it sends out a message that you probably have a dirty kitchen. If it's a bright, clean, sharp menu, it looks like you're a bright, clean operation." Yea, I agree the menu can identified a restaurant, BUT I did not realize the clean menu would present a clean operation. I only thought about the $$. A nice designed menu present a large bill.That was the idea I had before.
"Align prices in a column on the right of the menu is a mistake" this is the second point I have realized. Kharasch said that kind of price placement lead customers to use the "shop-by-price method". No matter how nice the discription, people's eyes would be easily attracted by the price. My mom is the top model of this model. Every time she read the menu, the price will be follow by. She skips the description if the price doesn't fit her expectation. Then she would not think about that at all even sometimes she wants to try new things. If the price she can accept, then she read the description. This is the so-called customer's psychology. Like the article says not to put the price straightly on the right size, and put it at the end of the description would be a good idea.
Of course these are not only the things need to be aware in the menu, like the price setting is a big chapter. Howver, people always forgot the small things also need to be take care. Menu really can affect the sales volume of a restaurant. A poor designed menu may result in reduce the profit, and a well designed menu may increase the profit.