August 12, 2005
I'm hungry
There's a serious market failure going on in the pre-packaged food industry.
When I lived in Japan as a 23-year-old sailor, I became an amateur anthropologist, spending some of my evenings studying human nature. Much of this research took place in bars, and these observations often required that I myself partake of the products bars served. As the research progressed, I often needed something to soak up the Kirin, so I and my fellow students would frequently repair to a noodle and dumpling shop for sustenance. I've been fond of ramen and gyoza ever since.
Now, finding Japanese noodles in American supermarkets is a snap, and finding pre-made frozen gyoza not much harder. But what if you want to make gyoza yourself? Well, you have to buy all the ingredients including the wrappers and then dice and slice like crazy. That's a heckuva lot of work.
So here's the market failure. When you can go into your local supermarket and buy pre-made salads, why has no one come up with pre-chopped gyoza ingredients? It's a tragedy, I tell you, a tragedy!
