Posted on 09/24/2003 8:19:05 PM PDT by jimbo123
DES MOINES, Iowa (Dow Jones/AP) - Darden Restaurants Inc. Wednesday said it had replaced the head of Red Lobster, its biggest chain, after an all-you-can-eat crab promotion went awry.
Darden President and Chief Operating Officer Dick Rivera will succeed Edna Morris as president of Red Lobster.
Morris, who had been in that job just 18 months, left to pursue other interests, the company said.
Darden executives said Red Lobster management had badly miscalculated how many times customers would refill their plates after paying $20 for an "endless" crab entree. Meanwhile, crab prices were going up, sending the profit margin crashing.
"It wasn't the second helping on all-you-can-eat but the third," said company chairman Joe R. Lee on a conference call.
"And maybe the fourth," added Rivera.
"But the food is sure good, I don't see how they make money...they have crabs, prawn, crayfish, salmon, ribs, really expensive food, and lots of it, all for less than $8.00."
Anyone familiar with the Cox report back in '99 can tell you why. Cox's panel concluded thousands of PLA operatives are here, pretending to be businessmen, students, cultural exchange officials, etc. A job in a Chinese restaurant, especially if it was run by your "family" would be perfect cover for an agent to get into the country. Two to three weeks later, when they got fired, they could just disappear into our society, safe in the knowledge that the INS, or whatever it's called now, is too inept and too understaffed to track them down. How do they stay in business? Well, as an intel-gathering operation, they'd be funded by the Chicom government. All those five-dollar shower curtains sold by Wal-Mart (and produxed by slave labor), can fund a whole lot of shenanigans.
Okay, I've got my Nomex CVC suit on, and am running out to the store for more tin foil...flame away!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I love asian folks they generally arent shy! I was at a buffet with "I like you. You big eater. You leave nothing on plate. Child in China die for that". a friend who really liked the "chicken and vegetable" he asked what was in it and got the reply "Gawd@mn you dont read?...Chicken!...vegetable!
And when he didnt finish his eggroll she lit into him...You finish!! finish now!! 75 cent you dont waste!
HAWwwwHoooo!
I love asian folks they generally arent shy! I was at a buffet with a friend who really liked the "chicken and vegetable" he asked what was in it and got the reply "Gawd@mn you dont read?...Chicken!...vegetable! And when he didnt finish his eggroll she lit into him...You finish!! finish now!! 75 cent you dont waste!
guess I should have proof read
I can vouch for their roast duck on rice takeout. $5.50
Gou Lou Cheung
September 05, 2003
One of the strange things about the otherwise swell Hong Kong City BBQ on 441 north of Commercial is that their namesake Chinese barbecue is only so-so. It's the other stuff that's really good.
Now maybe a mile or so south, in the small strip adjacent to the one that houses the other HK standby Silver Pond along with that largish Sino-Viet grocery, the little prepared-foods shop and such, there's also a tiny storefront Chinese BBQ takeout. A mainstay of Chinatowns (and Chinese towns), Gou Lou Cheung is the typical narrow little shoebox of a shop, with whole glistening birds and shiny and bumpy slabs of pork hanging on hooks behind glass up front, and a couple of tiny tables towards the back.
They haven't been around that long, and already half the items on the menu are crossed out: eliminated are noodle soups and most of their dim sum, possibly to settle disputes with the Vietnamese pho joint and Silver Pond, each a few doors down. What's left are animals and animal parts, mostly, though they also had trays of sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves (an acquired taste I still haven't acquired) and what looked like steam buns behind the counter.
Meats include the usual bright red roast pork and its fried "crispy" cousin, whole golden ducks, pale soy-baked chickens, and steam-table bins of chicken feet, pig intestines and other organs and appendages.
In a bit of a departure from the usual, they also have some meats prepared in Vietnamese styles, most obviously a fish-sauced chicken. Whether the owners are from Vietnam or they're simply catering to the substantial Vietnamese contingent in the area, I didn't ask.
Anyhow: everything looks fine, and in the interest of science (science!) I tried a plate of their roast duck over rice. I'm happy to report that the chopped strips of bone-in duck were tender and moist, very meaty, and the skin was crisp and tasty without being chewy. The sweet-salty soy-hoisin sauce poured over it was fine, and the side of steamed chopped Chinese cabbage was its usual bland, faintly garlicky-gingery self without being cooked to death.
It's not going to change the world, but it's a good addition to the area and would be my stop of choice for roast meats in Broward. They're at 4139 SR 7/US 441 in Lauderdale Lakes, between Oakland Park and Commercial. Essentially takeout only, but if you don't mind eating out of styrofoam, there are a couple of little tables for two by the kitchen door.
One time 11 of my family went in there for a family celebration. We walked out about 5 hours later stuffed to the gills. About a month later, they closed the doors on that restraunt.
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