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Lynda
Abend, left, and Loren Appin, right, eat breakfast at Cereality Cereal Bar &
Cafe, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2004, in Philadelphia. Cereality
Cereal Bar & Cafe opened its first sit-down cafe Wednesday on
the University of Pennsylvania campus. (AP Photo/Joseph
Kaczmarek) | |
How's this for thinking outside the box: a cafe with
jammies-clad servers pouring cereal day and night, topping it off with everything from fruit to
malted milk balls, and serving it in "bowls" resembling Chinese takeout
containers. It's all cereal. Seriously.
Cereality Cereal Bar & Cafe, which opened its first sit-down cafe
Wednesday on the University of Pennsylvania campus, is a sugarcoated and tongue-in-cheek homage to what your
mother always told you was the most important meal of the day. But she
probably never dished out
bowls of Froot Loops and Cap'n Crunch topped with Pop Rocks.
Behind glass-door kitchen-style cabinets at Cereality are 30 varieties
of brand-name cold cereal. Customers order from "cereologists," whose most
popular mix is two 8-ounce scoops with one of 36 toppings, plus regular,
flavored or soy milk for $2.95. Also offered are cereal bars and
made-to-order cereal smoothies
and yogurt blends.
Though some of the choices sound like a sugar overdose or a dental
disaster to the uninitiated
(or to those long past their college years), they're not all that
indulgent.
"This is great because you can try all different kinds and not have to
buy the whole box," said Penn freshman Erica Denhoff, 18, as she munched
on a healthy concoction of Quaker Oat Squares, Corn Chex and yogurt flax
bark with skim milk. "I'm on the track team. I eat cereal for breakfast
and for a snack if I need energy."
Co-founders David Roth and Rick Bacher opened the first Cereality, a
200-square-foot kiosk in Arizona State University's student union, last year. Besides the
1,500-square-foot Philadelphia cafe in the middle of Penn's retail
district, the Boulder, Colo.-based company wants to open more than a dozen
Cerealities next year on campuses, hospital lobbies, airports and office
buildings.
"We don't see this as (solely) a college concept, we see this as being
relevant to the 95 percent of the American public that eats cereal," Roth
said. If college students "the most cynical market we can go after" like
it, Roth's confident that office workers and travelers will like it too.
In Philadelphia, customers can eat Apple Jacks and stretch out on a
couch (Mom might not approve, but it's OK here), watch cartoons on a
flat-screen TV or check their e-mail via free Wi-Fi access.
Like build-your-own salad bars with fattening and healthy foods side by
side, "I think this is something that's as good or as bad as you want it
to be," said Jeanne Goldberg of Tufts University's Friedman School of
Nutrition Science and Policy.
American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Gail Frank agreed that cereals can be a good fast food because
they're high in fiber and loaded with vitamins and minerals
as long as customers keep their sweet tooths in check and pick
healthier toppings like nuts and fruit.
(Agencies) |
開這樣一個餐館算不算獨辟蹊徑呢？餐館侍者整天穿著寬大的睡衣，把谷類食品倒在一起，再加入水果、麥乳精球等各種調味原料，然后把它們盛在碗（類似于中式外賣容器）里端給顧客。這就是純谷食品，不是開玩笑。
上周三，“純谷餐吧”的首家設座餐館在美國賓夕法尼亞大學校園里開張了。對于母親常說的一天中最重要的一餐，這家店半開玩笑又滿是甜蜜地給予了絕對重視。但是，你母親可能從未把福樂圈和撒滿Pop
Rocks糖的“嘎吱嘎吱船”牌麥片粥端到你家餐桌上。
純谷餐吧有一排廚房風格的玻璃門櫥柜，里面放著30種不同品牌的冷凍谷類。顧客向“谷物專家”點餐，最受歡迎的搭配是普通的香濃牛奶或豆奶加上36種澆頭中的一種，來上兩勺，每勺8盎司，售價2.95美元。該店還提供麥片餅干棒和定做的純谷水果冰沙和調制酸奶。
盡管對缺乏經驗（或早就結束大學生活）的人來說，（食譜上的）某些選擇似乎含糖過量，還有可能造成牙病。但這里的食物并不是都那么容易讓人放縱自己。
“這是一件很棒的事，因為你可以品嘗所有不同的種類，不需要每樣都購買一整盒。”賓夕法尼亞大學大一新生、18歲的埃里卡·登霍夫說，她正在貪饞地咀嚼著由“燕麥方脆”牌麥片、Chex牌玉米麥片、混合著亞麻莖皮的酸奶和脫脂乳調制的健康營養粥。“我是田徑隊成員。我早餐都吃谷類食品，需要補充能量時也把它當零食吃。”
去年，純谷餐吧的合伙人大衛·羅絲和里克·巴徹在亞利桑那州立大學的學生活動大樓開了第一家純谷餐吧——一個只有200平方英尺的簡易小吃鋪。除了開在“賓大”零售商業區中段、占地1500平方英尺的費城分店外，這個總部設在科羅拉多州博爾德市的公司打算明年在校園、醫院門廳、機場和辦公樓開一批純谷餐吧。
羅絲說：“我們并不認為這只是一種‘校園概念’，我們覺得這和美國大眾中95%的鐘愛谷類食物的人有關。”羅絲相信，如果連大學生這個“我們能遇到的最挑剔的市場”都喜歡它的話，上班族和旅行者們也會喜歡它的。
在費城，顧客們可以一邊品嘗Apple
Jacks，一邊躺在睡椅上舒展筋骨，（老媽可能不贊成這樣做，但在這里沒關系），還能打開平面電視看卡通片，或通過高速無線網絡接口免費收郵件。
和旁邊一家出售容易使人發胖的健康食物的“自助式色拉餐廳”一樣，“我認為這是可能是一件好事也可能是壞事，關鍵是你想讓它怎么樣。”塔夫茲大學弗里德曼學院研究營養科學和政策的珍妮·戈德伯格說。
美國飲食協會的發言人蓋爾·弗蘭克同意谷類食品是一種較為理想的快餐，因為它們富含纖維素、維他命和礦物質。消費者只需適度控制他們對甜食的喜好，并選擇果仁和水果等比較健康的澆頭。
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2004-12-03 10:43