The Credit Munch Crunch: Restaurant Recession

Hello again! I've been a busy bunny lately, making all kinds of almost certainly unnecessary changes to this website for starters. Mmmm starters. Anyway, I need to treat this more like a blog. This is supposed to be the bit where I can just talk rubbish, right?

So, politics... well, not quite. I know the credit crunch is hardly topical any more, but don't worry I'll get into Swine Flu next time. I think it's really interesting to see how financial issues have changed the sort of food you see in pubs, bars and restaurants. It certainly makes you realise how times of plenty got their name.

Steaks are much smaller, which is a bad thing. Chips become a diminishing species, a bit like bumblebees. Menus change - is it just me or is pork belly suddenly appearing on every menu in the land? Makes sense, it's by far the cheapest cut, and I don't mind too much because it's tasty, but it's being sold at obscene prices as if they're doing you a favour. There's nary a chop in the land these days.

It does make me wonder where this is going next. Will there suddenly be menus filled with trotter, snout and testicle delicacies? There's already a lot of offal being presented on silver platters. Just look at a menu in any half pretentious restaurant. I'm right, I promise you. I think.

Anyway, if it's any consolation to the consumer, it's not doing them any good - seems like some of those outrageous prices in restaurants are actually justified. They're going out of business faster than stock-brokers are defenestrating.

food, prices, recession, credit crunch

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