Mars getting smaller

Pytt i panna

Food Diary (February 18, 2012)

Breakfast: Ham sandwich

Lunch: Pasta with lentil, vege’s and pickled lemons

Dinner: Pytt i panna

Baking/sweets: Various

Today I want to talk about a super condiment that seems to be eluding the culinary world. I have only seen it mentioned once on a blog. To avoid confusion this is not a product review, just me rambling.

Fried onion

The super condiment is none other than fried battered onion. In Swedish its called rostad lök, which translates into roasted onion. Its not roasted, it is battered and deep fried. And unlike onion rings the pieces are smaller. It is most commonly served as a condiment for hot dogs. Every 7-11 that I have been to has it. Crispy delicious fried onion magically transforms a humble hot dog. When I buy a hot dog from 7-11 or anywhere else, it is the fried onion that I particularly look forward to, the sausage and bun is bonus! Fried onion is a great garnish not just for hotdogs but countless other dishes. I presume it would be excellent with hamburgers and as a crunchy topping for risottos. You can even eat it on its own, like chips. It has similar fat content but more fibre. 

Before coming to Sweden I never knew this existed. And I haven’t seen this anywhere else. I don’t know where this originated from. You can quite easily make it at home if you feel like deep frying. The supermarket I visited on Friday had a promotion, I bought two 150 gram containers, hence the reason I am talking about it today.  I finished one container yesterday, I ate it on its own. 

Today's Favourite Photo

Source: Gourmet Estorie

Salmon Sashimi

Today’s Favourite Blog 

Source: Reuters

Mars Inc, the maker of Snickers and Twix, will stop selling chocolate products with more than 250 calories in them by the end of next year. The reasoning is that this is part of an ongoing effort to improve the nutritional value of its products and to sell them in a responsible way.

Its great that companies are trying but I wonder how effective it will be. The 59g bar has 280 calories. This will need to be reduced by about 10%. This is not so bad. Someone used to a regular bar will probably manage with a slightly smaller bar. King size snickers has 540-calories. Someone used to eating one of these in one sitting will probably end up having two 250 calorie bars. It is still an improvement. And I suppose Mars will make more profit selling two smaller sized bars.

The numbers seem to have been very carefully selected. Without having done any detailed analysis, it seems the adjustments may work. It is possible that customers will end up consuming slightly less calories, and Mars could end up making slightly more profit. A win-win, in theory at least?