Milkshake

"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard and they're like it's better than yours. Damn right it's better than yours. I could teach you but I'd have to charge."

The lyrics are taken from "Milkshake" by Kelis. The sign hangs at Trueburger on Grand Avenue in Oakland, where they serve hamburgers, french fries and, yes, milkshakes. It proves a nifty play on words.

What Ohno eats

To prepare for the Winter Games, according to Sports Illustrated, speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno "has been on the same fit-for-a-parrot diet for 15 weeks; a meal rotation every three hours that includes oatmeal, salmon, brown rice, salad, fruit, seaweed, blue-green algae and, occasionally, pasta."

Is it any wonder he has but 2 percent body fat?

Though I could eat nearly everything on Ohno's list - what exactly is blue-green algae? - nowhere in that description do I see cake or ice cream or bagels and cream cheese or hamburger and french fries... Or anything else that might easily brighten a day. Imagine the discipline.

Oh well, so much for my Olympics speedskating dreams.

Good eats

Any day spent at the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco is a good day. There is Peet's and Blue Bottle Coffee, tasty salted pig parts at Boccalone Salumeria, Boulette's Larder and The Slanted Door. And there are macarons, of course, from Miette. Any day spent eating burgers at Taylor's Automatic Refresher is a good day.

Upstairs we eat

Downstairs in The Horniman at Hays, a stone's throw from the HMS Belfast and London Bridge, people laugh and drink after work and into the evening.

Upstairs, away from the bustle, we eat. We have pie and mash and veggies. We have fish and chips and mushy peas. Others come for the beer. We, apparently, come for the food.

Food matters

On the table: Cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches from the Dollar Menu at McDonald's. It is a last-minute but convenient lunch, coupled with baked apple pies and strong cravings - left unsatisfied - for high-sodium french fries.

On the reading list, ironically: Mark Bittman's book "Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating." In it, he advocates "sane eating." He suggests, for example, we consume less meat, certainly less fast food, more vegetables, legumes, fruits and whole grains.

Next time, we do better.

French fries and mangoes

Among the best parts of the exchange between Pres. Obama and 11-year-old Florida student Damon Weaver, who had been angling for months for an interview with the chief executive:

Damon: Do you have the power to make the school lunches better?

Pres. Obama: Well, I remember that when I used to get school lunches they didn't taste so good, I've got to admit. We are seeing if we can work to at least make school lunches healthier, cause a lot of school lunches, there's a lot of french fries, pizza, tater tots, all kinds of stuff that isn't a well-balanced meal. So we want to make sure there are more fruits and vegetables in the schools. Now, kids may not end up liking that, but it's better for them. It'll be healthier for them. And those are some of the changes we're trying to make.

Damon: I suggest that we have french fries and mangoes every day for lunch.

Pres. Obama: See, and if you were planning the lunch program it'd probably taste good to you but it might not make you big and strong like you need to be. And so we want to make sure that food tastes good in school lunches but that they're also healthy for you, too.

Damon: I looooove mangoes.

Pres. Obama: I love mangoes, too. But I'm not sure we can get mangoes in every school. They only grow in hot temperatures and there are a lot of schools up north where they don't have mango trees.

Young Damon might be onto something. I would love to subsist for a while on french fries and mangoes as well. They would definitely have to be crisp steak fries, however, and fresh juicy mangoes.

Deep-fried goodness

"They are my favorite food in the whole wide world... I could live on french fries."

Michelle Obama, speaking of food indulgences in The New York Times.

I have got to love this woman. She chooses to eat well and exercises regularly, yet can not resist an occasional side order of goodness. Her French fries are my lemon doughnuts.