Jaunted

Recession Eats / Recessionomics / Food Travel / → All Tags

Dumpster Diving On The Rise In Paris

We were in Paris last week, and the first thing that struck us (apart from just how the locals manage to balance while enjoying their PDAs on the clunky Metro) was just how expensive everything was. The cheapest croque monsieur we came across was €8 ($10). Even a coffee set us back €4 a pop.

At the time, looking at the bustling cafes and the rammed shops, we assumed that France had somehow avoided the whole global recession thing, but an article in the Times has made us realise life isn’t as easy over there as it looked. In fact, according to a government report last week, scavenging is on the up around the capital.

”Glanage”, as it’s called, is already a French tradition, where peasants would forage for leftover crops in the fields after the harvest. But that was in the Middle Ages.

It’s not that shocking, we suppose – London has an ever-growing community of freegans and dumpster divers. But, according to reports, the French are seeing this as a sign of growing poverty, with kindly shop owners leaving out the eggs on top, so people can get to them undamaged.

Of course, it might be an idea to drop the prices in the first place… but who wants to spoil this living tableau of fraternité?

[Photo: Yahoo]

Happy Hour / Downtown Los Angeles / Pub Travel / Recession Eats / → All Tags

Where Is the Best Happy Hour in Downtown LA?

Take the 400,000 people who commute into downtown Los Angeles every weekday. At 4:30pm every day, present them with this little brainteaser: either you can sit on the freeway for two hours inhaling smog while the seconds of your life slowly tick way or you can throw back a few cocktails at one of downtown's fine dining establishments.

The resulting situation is what economists refer to as a "market opportunity" and predictably there are a number of restaurants that have opened after-work happy hours in recent years. These are much-needed bright spots in the lives of those who have to work in downtown LA and the unlucky business travelers who have to shack up there instead of Santa Monica or Beverly Hills.

That said, we sought out the best happy hour in downtown LA and it all comes down to the cheeseburger.

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