I like the idea of McDonald's hamburger as a symbol of mass produced luxury. Reminds me of when John Gruber quotes Warhol on Coca Cola. Whether or not the produ

I like the idea of McDonald's hamburger as a symbol of mass produced luxury. Reminds me of when John Gruber quotes Warhol on Coca Cola. Whether or not the product is to your liking, you have to be impressed at the level of consistent quality that they can apply to an industrial food production process. Chipotle may be the ascendant totem of aspirational ethnic food diners, but more tribute should be paid to the original cultural assimilation cuisine. Recently on my first trip to New York, I was blown away by the Manhattan pizza shops. There is a huge number of independent proprietors, and each has their own, slightly differing process for making pizza. It's tasty food with lavish ingredients - meats, cheeses, fresh vegetables. Watching the queues at lunch, it was interesting to see such variety in customers - white, black, business suits, working class, etc. There didn't see to be any dominant demographic. That level of uniqueness made me wonder why pizza is not a more celebrated food. It certainly has the same characteristics that enable Tokyo ramen otaku to write blogs painstakingly deconstructing their meals. Perhaps once the current anti carb movement dies down, it will come back into fashion.