@ForkReport - Hour 2 | QR codes or physical menus?

Neil is sharing the joys of dining alone, BYE QR code menus, and is Al Capone the reason we have expiration dates on milk?  The Fork Reporter is breaking it down on KFI-AM640!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savedra. You'relistening to kfi EM six forty the fore
Report on demand on the iHeartRadio app. How do you do? Thanks for
hanging out on the four Report,where we just celebrate and enjoy food.
You can also hear me with misterBill handle as I hang out with him
every Monday through Friday, starting atsix am to nine am, right after

(00:25):
wake up call with our beloved AmyKing starting at five in the morning.
So and don't forget, you've gotsoul cal Saturdays coming up with Wallace Sharp
at five and then Unsolved with SteveGregoryso go nowhere. So there was an
article in Delish. By the way, delish dot com great great resource for

(00:48):
people who love food, wonderful articlesand the like. You should check it
out. Alison Arnold published a storythat says the underrated joy of going to
a restaurant alone. Some of myfavorite meals were eaten by myself. And
I'll break down this article a littlebit for you. She basically says that

(01:08):
you know, as we all know, eating out is usually seen as a
group thing. You meet friends,or you have some sort of celebration,
special occasion. Maybe relaxing after abusy week. You gather around that table
and the whole concept is to sharestories, enjoy a meal together, point

(01:30):
out things that you like, maybesomething you don't like, the vibe of
the restaurant, the energy, that'sthe norm. That's how we tend to
experiment, not experiment, experience restaurantsin the West, particularly here in the
Southland, for sure. But whatabout going to a restaurant alone? So

(01:55):
she poses that eating alone is oneof those things that we tend to do
when we're in a hurry, quicklunch during work hours, you're traveling solo,
and you've got to do it.But going to a nice restaurant by
yourself in your hometown, on yourleisure for the hell of it is something

(02:21):
that we just don't do. Itfeels strange for some people, and it
really really shouldn't if you break itdown. I agree with her there,
and she poses, as the authorof this article, that it can be
even better than dining with others.Her key focus is you don't have distractions
like phones or chatty companions, whichis funny enough. What companion means means

(02:49):
someone you break bread with, soyou can focus just on the experience the
food itself, hyper diving into thevibe and the moment, and that the
culture that we live in really iswhat dictates that now. She uses some

(03:09):
examples that were in you know,film and television and how people were made
to look or feel uncomfortable when theywere by themselves dining out alone. She
says that it's very easy to feeljudged or shame now. Alison Arnold,
the author of this article in Delish, continues to breaking down how she has

(03:34):
so much fun when she eats alone. She says, it's in addition to
being present and enjoying the moment,you may even find peace of mind,
like a you know, meditative experience. Those are my words, not hers,
of being in that moment, andit's becoming more popular apparently, lots
of articles, lots of studies comingout talking about the benefits of eating alone.

(03:58):
Now in places like Japan, eatingalone is very common, has been
for a long time. They evenhave you know, special seating solo dining
stalls in some restaurants. So,whether you enjoy eating out or you know
alone, or if you prefer somethingelse, treat yourself to a solo walk,

(04:19):
treat yourself to a movie by yourself. It's all about kind of doing
something special for you, not worryingabout anybody else, and not in a
selfish way, but in a selfpreservation way. Put away that phone,
savor the moment, and enjoy andI kind of dig that. You know,
my schedule is different than my wife's. Plus we have a seven year

(04:41):
old child. There's not a lotthat we can do by ourselves. I
will tell you we don't want to. I mean, it's not that we
don't want to be together by ourselves, but as a family of three,
it's fun. Like I genuinely enjoythe vibe and the energy of my son

(05:02):
at seven as I do my wife, and I think she would feel the
same way. Now we're adults andenjoy ourselves on other levels as well,
of course, but there's something aboutthe three of us hanging out. It's
really it's really fun. Going toa movie becomes difficult. Even watching a

(05:24):
movie at home becomes difficult because ithas to be in the realm of something
that we can watch the family.So I have toyed going out to the
movies by myself because you know,the only people that I'd probably really click
with to do that during the daywould be you know, Tauala or Mow

(05:45):
or something like that where you know, I know their schedules are a little
different. They like to do matineesthey can do. So, yes,
there are people I can go outto movies with during the day, but
I don't mind sitting in a movieby myself, and I have a great
experience of eating by myself. Ona number of occasions. There would be

(06:06):
times, for instance, where inmy marketing days for the station or as
a represent a representative of KFI asthe assistant program director. And for those
of you who don't know, Istepped away from all of my management duties
at CAFI. I'm now just ahost here and that's my focus to continue

(06:30):
right now, to be on handledo this program and of course produce the
Jesus Christ Show and other things focusingon that. But there were times where
I'd have to go out of townto accept an award on behalf of the
station, and you know, Iwouldn't necessarily bring my wife at the time,
or even when my wife and Iwere dating, because when I'm doing

(06:51):
work stuff, I tend not to, you know, have my family there
because it's I want to give themthe attention they do. And if I'm
working, I'm working. So Iwas in Washington, DC and back in
the day Morton's Steakhouse now Morton's Steakhousenow is fine. I enjoy them fine,
but they are not what they usedto be. I'm sorry. They

(07:14):
are more of a chain restaurant nowand a lot of the things that made
them special are gone. They werealmost run not like a speakeasy, but
an old school steakhouse. And atone point I was made and that just
meant that I went there a lotwhen I was single. It was downstairs
from the station, and we'd justrun down there and we would all hang
out and drink and eat and allthose things. So they did this little

(07:38):
ceremony to make you a VIP andyou fill out this form that goes into
the computer system, and what thatdoes is it lets them know your preferences
on everything from the cocktails you likewith the specific spirits that you use,
to the food you like, thesteaks you like, how you prefer them

(08:01):
cooked. Everything. It was reallyneat at the time, especially as a
single guy, like I said,when I'm doing traveling by myself, it
was really nice. I could walkinto any Morton Steakhouse and get the exact
same treatment. I'd make a reservation, I'd walk in and they'd know everything
about it. Mister Savedra, it'snice to see you. I see that

(08:24):
you've not been to our location before. Will it be whatever drink I was
drinking at the time, and abone in ribbi medium rare and that sounds
lovely. So I'm in Washington,d c Ata Morton's Steakhouse and they go
through this whole thing. It was. It was lovely. They treated me
wonderfully and they said, I seeyou're eating alone tonight and I said yes.

(08:52):
They said could we bring you somemagazines or any reading material? And
I thought that was a neat Thatwas very cool. It's like, hey,
you're going to be by yourself.Is there any way that we can?
And I said no, you know, tonight, I'm fine. I'm
just gonna be having some drinks andsome good food. Then they asked this
question, which I thought was sotop notch, Well, do you that's

(09:15):
fine? Do you mind if wesend our you know, some of our
servers or our hostess over to checkon you from time to time, just
to make sure that you're comfortable andenjoying your meal, And I said sure,
And it was really lovely. Itdidn't look forced, it wasn't awkward.
It was like, hey, comingback to say hello, are you
enjoying your meal? Gosh, I'ma huge fan of that dish, or

(09:41):
I see you're drinking this? Haveyou tried drinking this? It was.
It was a stellar experience. Andso when I read this article in delish
dot com today about the underrated joyof going to a restaurant alone, it
brought back a couple of memories goingout to eat alone that I enjoy.
Now, nothing to me is goingto be as magical as sharing a meal

(10:03):
with someone who loves to eat outand wants to enjoy the vibe of a
place. You know, someone thatI probably eat out the most with,
although it's been a while, ismy brother Craig. He and I would
go and we'd enjoy a restaurant andtheir cocktail program and all of that.
Yeah, I'd love being with him. I enjoy his his dislikes. I

(10:26):
enjoy having conversation with him. Ienjoy talking about the food and the beverages
and learning from him on the cocktailbalance and all these things and it's wonderful.
But I want to encourage you andI'm going to do the same for
me that if you have an opportunityto eat alone, try doing that.
Or if there's a place that youreally want to check out and you're not
checking out because you never seem tohave the time to do it with your

(10:48):
buddies or even your spouse or partners, go try it out, do a
little mini review of it. Whatevermakes you feel more comfortable. But I
think it's healthy to do, andI wanted to pass that along. You're
listening to The Fork Report with NilSavedra on demand from KFI AM six forty.

(11:09):
Hey, everybody, it's the ForkReport, all Things Food, beverage
and beyond. I am your wellfed host, Neil Savadra. How do
you do Whendy's Saucy Nugs m finallyhappening. They rolled these out, if
you remember, I believe last December, right so fans have been craving them.
I did not have them, Idon't believe, but I love the

(11:33):
concept. Saucy nugs so delicious chickennuggets, but they're smothered in tasty sauces
tossed in them and they're going nationwide. So when they teased us all about
these saucy nugs back in December,but they were only in one location.
They were in Ohio, I don'tknow why, don't look at me.

(11:54):
So now they're spreading this massive loveacross the whole country and we get to
come together like one big koumbaia offoodies. Then grab the saucy nuggets.
You can get them in four,six, ten, or even twenty piece

(12:15):
packs, and they come in sevenof these delicious mouth watering flavors. Check
it out. Honey barbecue boom,garlic palm boom, spicy ghost peppers boom,
oh wow ow boom, plus more. You get to dip them in

(12:39):
either ranch or blue cheese. SoI love that. So not only are
they tossed in these seven flavors,right, so imagine this, they're basically
like boneless chicken wings. And Iknow everybody says there's no such thing as
boneless chicken wings. They're just nuggetsin sauce. Yeah, so what Now

(13:03):
You've got these saucy nugs comeing toWendy's and they're gonna have all the fun
uh deep fried crunchiness that comes withthe nuggets, but they're gonna be tossed
in things like garlic, palm orhoney, barbecue, and they have tons
of different flavors. Right. Butthe fact that you can dip those that

(13:24):
are already dipped technically you can dipthose again in ranch or blue cheese,
just shows you that Wendy's is readingour minds as foodies. So they've got
this great way of saucing them upto they basically toss the nuggets in this
container, the container they're gonna giveyou in the sauce. They give it
a good shake and then it's handedto you. So it's it's kind of

(13:48):
like, I don't know, it'slike when you get like a fancy Caesar
salad made table side. You knowit's done right there. Maybe not exactly
the analogy, but you get whatI'm talking about. Give it a good
shake, ready for some of thatserious saucy finger action, and they got

(14:09):
you going. John Lee, who'sone of the big wigs there in charge
of cooking up new stuff at Wendy's, he says that they're all about giving
you this massive, flavor packed experience. They've whipped up these unique sauces seven
or eight in total to make yournugget experience and all the munching even better.

(14:31):
So if you're ready to dive intosome seriously saucy goodness at Wendy's,
you know where to get it.I'm excited to try these. I like.
You know, dry nugs are fine. It's not like I don't do
that myself. No matter where I'mgetting them from, it happens. But
man, there's something about barbecue orsome sweet and sour or whatever you like

(14:56):
to put on yours that just kicksit up to a level that is far
superior than the old naked naked nugget, which doesn't sound right when it came
out of my mouth, but Ithink you understand what I'm saying. It
means you've got no sauce on it. So you like the sauce like I
do. Wendy's is going to treatyou quite well. All right, more

(15:20):
to come. You're listening to theFork Report with Nil Sevadra on demand from
KFI AM six forty. How doyou do? Here comes the holidays?
Let's start doing that. No onelikes that, but it's the truth.
Boom, here comes the Hall.You know what I'm going. I'm going
to storage today when I leave theshow to get my Halloween decorations and my

(15:46):
Christmas lights. I'm doing it.I don't know. The year's going fast,
is what I'm saying. You know, speaking of going fast, some
things come at you fast. Thingschange. The pandy did that. The
minute it hit, all kinds ofchange came with it. And now we're
starting to see as we're out ofit, like the hell are we doing?

(16:07):
Why did we do this? Doyou still see those scuffed up signs
with you know, footprints on themthat say six feet please and all that
stuff, and they're dirty and they'returned you know, they're on the sidewalks
sometimes. While another thing that's maybenot as obvious as seeing those are the
QR codes. You remember those.I was never really a fan. They're

(16:32):
at restaurants. They popped up duringthe pandemic. Turns out we don't like
them. We just don't like them. We're not thrilled about them. We
weren't thrilled about them then, wedon't like them. Now we think that
they're kind of tacky and we're happyto see them go, and they're starting
to go. But wasn't it saidthat the menus like the dirtiest thing in
the restaurant when the QR code makeit a little safer because you're just using

(16:56):
your phone and you're not touching themenus. Well that was the theory,
yeah, But then you could alsouse disposable ones menus. Disposable menus,
yeah, yeah, or you canmake them out of a different harder surface
that you can. But all thesethings, they just people want to you
know, if you're gonna give meone, then give me one on paper
and you can toss it afterwards orrecycle it, do whatever you want with

(17:18):
it. But people want to holdthe menu and they want to look at
it. As a matter of fact, I usually don't let them take the
menu. I keep one at thetable in case there's something else or what
have you. But the technology itcame in and it's like, all right,
but we were doing anything. Putme outside, put me on the
roof. I just want to eat. So there's this market research firm,

(17:42):
Technomic. They found that most customersactually preferred good old fashioned paper menus when
they're diting out. And it's notjust about convenience. Many people see the
QR codes not only as tacky,but if you remember, this was not
that long ago, maybe the endof last year or something, that scammers

(18:07):
were making QR codes and putting themover the QR codes on those menu stations
that would link you to malware orwould take you to a different website.
So they were putting them over them, and there was a big problem.
The FBI was saying, don't usethose things anymore because people are using them
to scam or to put bad malwareon your phone, right, and so

(18:34):
you had to worry about that.So what's coming out of this is that
the QR codes are going away.They're just not getting the endorsement. People
don't feel there's something about tangibility thatwe haven't given up yet. Some things
were okay with ordering online, Likeyou go to Disneyland now, or you

(18:57):
go to the Disney resis, whetherit's California Disney Adventure or what have you.
It's awesome. I can go onthere and I can order my food
at a location for a certain time. We know we're in line, we
know we're going to do something.I can do that with my family and
say in thirty five minutes, I'llcome pick it up. And then you

(19:18):
go and it's done, it's ready, and you grab it and you sit
down. That's convenient, But Istill like looking at a menu. There
is something about holding a menu inyour hand that sets you up. As
Kayla said, it is true themenu if they have plastic sleeves on them
or they were usable. The menuand you know what else is the two

(19:44):
dirtiest things that ice? Well,all the ices can It depends. In
a good restaurant they're taking care ofit's a whole different program. But at
some fast food places and like indefinitely on airplanes the wall that doesn't come
out of a bottle and the iceon airplanes are filthy. Really yep,

(20:07):
really yeah, Oh that's that's then. I just got off a plane with
a cup of ice. Yeah,it's really unfortunate. You're filthy? Is
it? The Is it the thetable? The table's clean, it's the
chair. The chair almost never getscleaned. And the menu They may wipe

(20:30):
it down with that same nasty ragdepending on where you ever see that.
Yeah, the rag is torn apartand it's gray. And then they wipe
like the table and the chair,and they distract you because the ninety five
year old waitress calls you honey orshit yeah yeah, or sweetems or something,
and you're like, oh, well, this is not and you're distracted
by how, you know, howlovely and all of that, and she's

(20:52):
wiping it down to that thing,and it's like the QR codes honestly probably
aren't much cleaner. People probably touchthose if you don't have to ban your
phone over it, and you pickit up and you have like a line
of and a justice probably just asdirty. Well that's funny. If you
actually picked up the QR code andput it in front of you, yeah,
then that defeats the whole damn fast. What about like you know,
how chilly says like the iPads orthe kindles, Yes, Robin you in

(21:18):
the back, you have a questionthe kindle the yeah if you if you
hold those, if they're not washingthem, then it's no different. Yeah,
I see that all the time.They're like, okay, you have
to use a QR code. Butat Starbucks or whatever, they go up

(21:40):
and then flip it around to youand then it says do you want to
give thirty percent, eighty percent ortwo hundred and fifty percent tip? And
you're like, what, well thatis filthy because everybody's been doing that.
Or my even more favorite is whenyou go to a sandwich shop or something
I'm not mentionings and they put thoseplastic gloves on and they use it for

(22:03):
six or seven sandwiches and the cashregister, and it's like, if you
just did that with your hand,it would be equally as filthy as it
is. Like the gloves give thema false sense of cleanliness because they're going,
my hands are cleaning with your glove. Your glove is filthy. So

(22:25):
yeah, I think we have afalse sense of security about these things.
But there's a whole Reddit thread dedicatedto griping about QR codes, complaints the
poor cell reception, or worries aboutprivacy. Somebody's got a different phone to
pick with this, so they're gettingrid of these things. Cybersecurity experts reported

(22:48):
there was a whopping five hundred andeighty percent or more increase in QR phishing
attempts. And that's what I'm saying, people putting different QR codes out there,
and and I don't know that,so that seems to be going the
way of the Dodo birds. You'regonna see those QR codes going away I'm
starting to see more menus and Isay, good rittens. That's just me.

(23:11):
I like the QR codes, Soyou would because you're filthy. You
already told us that. All right, I eat airplane ice. Yeah,
I'm gonna start calling you airplane.I mean, what up? Ai her
Ai? She likes super smart youknow, a bunch stuff. No,
she eats airline. I don't kissher. That's how you get brain worms.

(23:36):
Is that what happens? Yeah,brain worms don't kiss kila? Oh
why mono? Oh? I wishand the brain worms? Thanks, thank
you? Yeah, okay, you'restill single. Great narrative. Yeah,
yeah, I think it's the airplanegiving me a single. I'm guessing it's
that airplane. I god, dangit, you got you got airplane eyes

(23:56):
breath. Yeah, I need myZelmans your sym. I would go and
get your teeth removed and replaced withZelman's. Then you'll never go wrong.
Oh you're a genius with a capitalj oh. God. Okay, you're
listening to the Fork Report with NilSavedra on demand from KFI AM six forty.

(24:18):
All right, al Capone, weall know who al Capone is,
right, And I read this storywild wild ass story on food beasts.
So apparently legendary mob boss Al Camponemight just might be the reason why milk
bottles have expiration dates on them.Little what right? How? Okay?

(24:47):
So back in the nineteen twenties,early thirties, Al Capone we all know
was a big deal. He wasrunning the show with the Chicago outfit that's
a k. The Chicago mafia.Right that his big deal was during Prohibition.
So during Prohibition you had gangs thatwere battling it out on the streets

(25:07):
everywhere, massive corruption, people dyinggetting shot, all for the control of
bootleg booze. Now you think backall those years, one hundred years ago,
I mean now, I mean thinkabout it, twenty twenty four,
we're looking at a hundred years agoand they're battling this out. Now,

(25:29):
if you think of the crazy number, I'm going to tell you, Capone
was apparently raking in one hundred milliondollars annually from illegal alcohol trade. Now,
according to his grand niece, deerDr Marie Capone, she says,
when prohibition ended, Capone needed tofind another gig, and he wanted one

(25:53):
where it didn't involve dodging bullets ordying, So what did he said?
All on? He settled on milk. So milk at the time was selling
more than alcohol, selling it wasselling for more than alcohol. Back then,
pretty much everyone drank it, right, So this legend or this story

(26:14):
has it that Capone got the ideaafter a relative got sticked sick from drinking
expired milk. He saw an opportunityto mix things up a little bit.
It was unregulated back then, milkwas and he could make money, but
legitimate, legitimately, and it wasn'tjust about making money. He was an
interesting guy. He had this softspot for the less fortunate. That's why

(26:37):
people kind of saw him as thisRobin Hood reputation guy because he set up
soup kitchens and the like all aroundthe city. So he already had his
grip on the bottling facilities from theprohibition days from Booze already had access to
that, so he decided to flexthis muscle convince the Chicago City Council to

(26:57):
pass a law mandate expiration dates onmilk bottles. So while his grand niece
hasn't exactly confirmed all the details onthis crazy tale, but if you look
online, it's going to show upal Capone's name whenever you mentioned milk expiration
dates, so who knows. Butit's a neat ass story and it's pretty

(27:19):
cool to think about the fact thiscould be true, and you know,
one of those really cool kind offood related stories out there. So I
thought i'd share it with you becauseI just thought interesting. All right,
when we come back, the folksfrom Lazy Dog are going to come and
tell you about Campfire Club. BillyGrant Grinham from Lazy Dog, he's the

(27:45):
CMO. He's going to join us, and this is the first of its
kind that I can think of.Maybe I might be wrong as far as
subscriptions go with restaurants, but stickaround. He'll explain really cool option for
folks that are going to that knowthat they love the food and they're going
to be popping in there. Sogo nowhere. You've been listening to the

(28:06):
Fork Report, you can always hearus live on kf I Am six forty
two to five pm on Saturday andanytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.