One Salmburger, Hold the Burdock

Fast-food outlets in Japan are trying to become more Japanese, reports the Wall Street Journal. The easy way is adding a teriyaki burger, as Wendy’s has, or a soy-chicken sandwich (McDonald’s Chicken Tatsuta). Local Japanese chains are going further with rice-bun sandwiches of bacon and sauteed burdock or grilled salmon with cheese and dried seaweed. The Journal says customers think of the Japanese items as more healthful, though we wonder about Wendy’s deep-fried pork cutlet sandwich.

Kudos for Bayonet Brigade Cuisine

The Bayonet Combat Support Brigade, Fort Ord, Calif., recently won the Army’s Phillip A. Connelly competition for best Army dining facility serving more than 201 people per meal. The International Food Service Executives Assn. judged the quality of the meals, and also whether the environment was aesthetically pleasing. At Ford Ord, soldiers and civilians had spruced the place up during off hours with paint and knit place mats.

The Wine Diet

Taylor California Cellars now sells a Diet Chablis, containing just 38 silly calories per 3.4-ounce serving. (A 3.4-ounce serving is pretty silly in itself, about a third the size of a standard restaurant wineglass, but that’s the federal standard for a diet beverage; maybe you could drink Diet Chablis from a martini glass.) Soon to come: Diet Blush and Diet White Zinfandel.

For Picky Eaters: Lamb and Rice

An estimated 170,000 cats in this country suffer from food allergies. Now veterinarians can put them on a hypoallergenic cat food based on lamb and rice--Hill’s Prescription Diet d/d--and reintroduce ingredients until they find the allergen.

Pop One for the Troops

Piper Sonoma Winery is welcoming American troops home from the Gulf with a limited edition 1987 brut Champagne, Victory Cuvee, which will be sold in the usual wine outlets and also at military commissaries for $13.50. This is not just a promotion--100% of the proceeds will be donated to the USO’s military entertainment programs and recreation centers in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia.

The Mac & Cheese Market Index

Kraft General Foods sees the current recession bottoming out, according to the New York Times. Kraft says macaroni and cheese sales rise as the economy falls, and the rise is leveling off: up 2.9% over ‘90, as against the 3.4% spurt last July.

Lest We Forget

The first microwave oven, marketed by Raytheon in 1959, cost $2,595, or about a squintillion dollars in today’s money.