Friday, July 1, 2011

Spanish Omelet, Roast Duck and Soul Daddy Closes

Spanish omelet with sourdough bread
Food Diary (June 30, 2011)
Breakfast: Rolled oats with strawberries
Lunch: Spanish omelet with sourdough bread
Dinner: Yellow bean and spinach pilaf
Baking/sweets:

The Spanish omelet with sourdough bread was a ‘carb fest’, bread filled with potato and egg. But it was delicious! 

It seems Spanish omelet was created due to tough conditions such as food shortage. Here is what wikipedia has to say about Spanish omelet " "…two to three eggs in tortilla for 5 or 6 [people] as our women do know how to make it big and thick with less eggs, mixing potatoes, breadcrumbs or whatever."

I had a luxurious one egg omelet though I can see how I could have stretched the egg by adding more potatoes. Good to keep in mind. 

Today's Favourite Photo
Roast duck – glistening with joy!



Today’s Favourite Blog
Soul Daddy, the winner of America's Next Great Restaurant reality TV show, is closed. Three restaurants were opened about a month and a half ago with ambitions to roll out a chain of restaurants nationwide. Two of the three restaurants were closed about 2 weeks ago and the final restaurant closed yesterday. The investors in Soul Daddy were Steve Ells (founder of Chipotle), Curtis Stone, Bobby Flay and Lorena Garcia. I don’t know if Jamawn Woods, the founder, invested any cash apart from this time. It is surprising that the restaurant failed even with 4 well known chefs and restaurateurs involved. I suppose healthy soul food was not as appealing as the investors thought. Or maybe too many cooks (chefs) spoilt the soup.

There is a saying ‘you should learn to walk before you start to run’. Soul Daddy opened three restaurants even before having success with just one restaurant, and they already had great plans to open even more. This surprises me, most of the well known chains started with one outlet. 

Restaurants are not expected to become profitable during the first year so there should be enough funds to survive the expected tough first year. Closing all three restaurants within 6 weeks is surprising but in hindsight it was perhaps a good decision. According to Star Tribune Jamawn Woods found out from an email that the first two restaurants were being closed. It seems that even though he was the founder he was not consulted. I suppose the investors had the final say.

Soul Daddy starting with 3 restaurants was probably the fastest chain to be established, and closing after 6 weeks it is probably the fastest chain to close.

12 comments:

  1. Oh man! I thought I was gonna get a recipe for that glorious roast duck :(
    Oh well, now that you've got my tummy juices going, it's google time.
    This is not good for my diet ... what diet?

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  2. spanish omelette or tortilla espanola is my favorite tapas to make for people!!! i love spain. :)

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  3. Do you mind sharing the recipe for the spanish omelette? It'll be a perfect weekend breakfast recipe for the family.

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  4. I love the Spanish omelet, but always try to make it in the oven to reduce the oil ate least ;-)
    An omelet sandwich is something I have never thought of, but definitely worth trying.
    From all the tv show I gather the restaurant business is very complicated... It's not only serving good food that sells well. I have also noticed that often the owner's ego is a huge problem!

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  5. ping: sorry to disappoint you with no recipe, a picture will have to do it! You are lucky, where you are you can pretty much walk down the street and find a place that sells roast duck, roast pork...

    Junia: its simple and delicious

    Shen: welcome to my blog! Unfortunately I don't have a recipe, I make it using estimation... I do a lot of my cooking this way

    Lorraine: duck food porn - thats a nice term!

    Sissi: A Spanish friend made spanish omelet sandwich and it was delicious and filling. She put ham in the omelet as well. Its a popular picnic food in Spain (so I have been told)

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  6. I don't know why I never thought to put an omelet on sourdough bread. It looks fantastic!

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  7. I heard soul daddy closed too! I really had high hopes for him after watching his show on NBC but starting up a restaurant no matter how good and no matter who is backing you is hard in itself. I can say however, that I really thought the Indian Spice food truck(don't remember the name of the restaurant) should have won! He had me from the get go!

    Oh and I love this omelet with roast duck! Never would have put the two together but it now sounds amazing and a must try

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  8. A carb fest sounds good to me! My mom used to make tortilla sandwiches all the time for us when we were little!

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  9. I approve of your carb fest...sounds wonderful! And that duck looks amazing!

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  10. That spanish omelette is amazing! My kitchen is calling out to me right now to put it to spanish omelette use :)

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  11. You had me at carb fest....ehehehehe. Awesome way to consume an omelet. ;)

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