Here’s the latest geek news. To search for food, one no longer needs to peer into the refrigerator or go through a phonebook or a dozen sites on the internet. All you gotta do is type in your favorite food and your zip code, and www.foodiebytes.com will spit out a list of diners in your area which serve aforementioned favorite food, along with the address, phone number, map and a detailed menu.
So I tried out a few dozen searches to see how it works. It works with popular items or popular locations, like a burger in San Francisco, but once you move out of the metros, the results come up empty. Seems there’s not a single burger joint in Oceanside, or fried chicken in Buena Park. Foodiebytes.com’s intentions may be admirable, but they need to do a bit (or more than a bit) of grunt work and manage to include every major restaurant in the country, before this foodie is going to byte.
Speaking of calories, New York City is again trying to wage a futile war against calories, with new regulations requiring calorie numbers printed alongside the price for chain restaurants. Under the rules, which officials rewrote after a federal judge struck down similar provisions in September, any chain that operates at least 15 outlets nationwide would have to display calorie content on their menu boards, menus or food tags — essentially wherever the restaurant lists the information that customers use to make their choices.
You think a true junk food addict would let a little thing like some calorie counters get in in the way of a bite into a big, juicy, tasty, salty, ketchup-laden Bigmac?
In other news, if you’re a resident of San Francisco, here’s your chance at glory, at becoming the torch bearer. Relax. You don’t have to do something heroic. Just run with a torch. Seriously. The 2008 olympic torch relay, will pass through San Francisco on April 9. It will be the only North American stop before the Olympic Games begin in Beijing in August. To enter applicants must submit an essay of 200 words or less describing their qualifications. All applications must be turned in by Feb. 3 for collection by San Francisco city officials.
In case you think you want to take a shot at it, might be a good idea to start cutting down on the calories and start doing some jogging, as opposed to dragging your fat behind across the park, which is what you do now.