Is There A Good Side To The Economic Downturn?

It has been said that families in cutting back on luxuries due to income being tight that some are returning to doing recreational things that cost less or no money at all(and that means more physical exercise)as opposed to being a coach potato to use a well known phrase.

And the hope is that when the situation improves this will continue even if some return to old habits. And the same is true regarding food.

More people are cooking for themselves and cutting back on prepared meals and this also mean that ingredients that are basic are popular once more. This also means that brands perhaps forgotten about or rarely used but that are still around are being found again or discovered for the first time.

Why? Probably because many of the brands apart from offering value for money, are part of the skill of being added to a dish as you cook so you have to think about that as you prepare your meals and if that is something you don't normally do, you'll not normally come into contact with these items. Or perhaps learning to do something yourself using flour, eggs, milk and so on. Or buying something that only requires peeling or cutting such as vegetables and/or fruit.

I dislike everything being classed as junk food...everything can be good in moderation and if you vary your diet of the food eaten across the week what is wrong with comfort food?

Why can't we eat a desert with custard or ice cream. Or fish fingers. Or a chicken pie etc...not at the same time of course ;-) If one looks at the ingredients on many of these "Traditional" goods these days you'll find that they have had certain ingredients taken out and some healthy ones substituted instead.

I've always eaten well, consider my diet reasonably healthy but I think I have always eaten traditional fare that could be called comfort food. There has always been food that is better than others and people who have been healthier than others. Really it comes down to the individual.

Here is an ironic thing...one of the food chains that probably gets stick from the press and media as selling "Junk Food" has said that in the next few years it will open up new outlets nationwide and this will result in 9,000 new jobs. The offer of all these extra jobs has been welcomed.

But hold on a minute, doesn't this fly in the face of the idea that we should eat less processed food? If and the plan must be for this chain to believe that it can be as successful as it hopes and to see it's market share improve this means that they hope the public will eat more of what it is selling or get more of the public into their takeaways that have never thought of doing so in the past. Then again to be fair...on price, quality and what is on offer, it could be that it is perfectly OK but just that you should not be eating it every day.

Now on the other hand, I heard the following on the radio and had to do a double take...even the presenter questioned if it was April Fool's Day as it seems such a silly or crazy idea.

A brand of gravy mix that has been around for over a century is to change it's name. Over the years it's changed it's image to suit the times but the catchphrase of "Ahhh Bisto!" has stuck.

The idea being that when you smell Bisto Gravy you make a satisfying sigh.

Well, the manufacturer has decided to drop the name Bisto and just have on the jars the days of the week so it would say "Ahhh Monday" "Ahhh Tuesday" and so on. It's laughable and at first I think the idea will fail...then again, perhaps the truth is that it's a temporary campaign just to get publicity and get people talking about it. I suspect there will be a tv campaign as well as advertisements in magazines etc...but look at the publicity the brand has gained by having newspapers write up stories about the change in name from the press release. It's all free publicity. So I personally think it is a stunt and not to be taken seriously.

There is a product that is still available and is probably better known in the States and as it's such a well known brand I am surprised that more of their products are not on sale in the UK specifically(though some could be licenced and manufactured locally)

An after thought...many companies get involved with Comic Relief a kind of charity event connected to the comiedians who raise money for good causes around the UK and the World and I am just wondering if this will turn out to be associated/connected to this event which is happening in the next few weeks.

Update:If you've clicked onto the last link you'll know it connects to Hormel's website in the USA. Originally the only reason I knew of their existance was by listening to some old radio shows of the 1940's starring George Burns and Gracie Allen. Why? Because they sponsored the programme for many years. As I said earlier I suspect the reason Hormel is not known so much here in the UK or in Europe is because there are plenty of local manufacturer's producing similar foods. Also the market must be large enough in the USA.

I had an interesting message from my friend North Star in the States...Spam does seem to invoke a variety of feelings in people but most processed food does. Yet mostly, it's ok. And it is surprising what culinary delights can be worked.

I don't think he'll mind if I quote one particular section...

"How do you think the company's name is pronounced? Originally, it was Hor' mels, with the 1st syllable accented. However, that pronunciation sounds a bit too much like Whore mel's, so the company later changed it Hor mels', with the 2nd syllable accented."

Thanks for that...It is amazing how many interesting facts or bits of trivia are out there if you look into the history of many of the world's best known products and companies.