Caviar ATM Debuts In Los Angeles, Also Sells Truffles & Bottarga

The Huffington Post  |  By Anna Almendrala 

LA Restaurants, Video, Blini, Bottarga, Burbank Caviar Atm, Burbank Town Center Mall, Caviar, Caviar Atm, Caviar Vending Machine, Escargot, Gourmet Salt, Los Angeles Caviar, Mother Of Pearl Spoon, Truffles, Food News

We get it. You're a high-powered executive/European art dealer/insufferable foodie/socialite about town and you don't always have time for a leisurely meal at Petrossian, Los Angeles' premiere caviar restaurant.
Now your high-class cravings are covered with LA's first caviar vending machines, located in Westfield Century City, Westfield Topanga and Burbank Town Center.
Described as "caviar boutiques," the vending machines stock caviar from all over the world. They also offer other gourmet foods like truffles, escargot, bottarga blinis, gourmet salts and caviar accessories.
A sample of the wares include Imperial River Beluga Caviar, for $500 an ounce, and a pink mother of pearl spoon for $4, notes Los Angeles magazine.

Photo via Facebook: Gourme Tfood
Food blog Eater points out that Los Angeles is a little late to the party when it comes to caviar vending machines. They first popped up in Moscow over two years ago.
But the Southern California region boasts a few other unusual ATMs. Sprinkles Cupcakes launched a 24-hour cupcake automat in March of this year at its Beverly Hills location. A month later, some intrepid medical marijuana businessmen launched a pot vending machine in Santa Ana, Calif.

What Is "Natural" Food?

The word "natural" gets bandied about a lot these days. It's used both cynically, by corporations trying to promote processed foods by evoking imagery of simplicity and rustic good health, and sincerely, by food-lovers applying it loosely to mean anything from "hand-made" to "unprocessed" to simply "healthy."

But what does it really mean?

When it comes to FDA food labeling, not much. Except as applied to meat and poultry products, for which "natural" labels can only be put on foods not containing "artificial flavoring, colors, chemical preservatives, or synthetic ingredients" (whatever that may mean), the "natural" label has no official definition and can be used without any USDA approval.

So forget the FDA - what does "natural" mean to us, as it applies to our food? Does it mean that a food grows on its own in the wilderness, without human intervention? Does it mean the food can be grown by humans, but can't have anything added to it (pesticide- and wax-free apples, maybe)? Does it mean it can't be processed in a factory (nothing canned or frozen)? Does it mean it can be processed in a factory but can't include anything made in a lab (nothing containing flavorings, natural or artificial alike)?

The fact that food corporations use the "natural" label to sell anything from toaster pastries to salad dressing speaks to the fact that many many people take the word to mean "not man-made" which they take to mean "healthy." This is certainly not always the case. We can all agree that many things which occur in nature are unhealthy or even lethal for humans - arsenic (an element!), certain mushrooms, hemlock, etc. And all but the most extreme of us agree that many man-made things improve the lives of people all over the world - injectable insulin for diabetics, sewage systems for clean water, salt with iodine to prevent goiters. Some of these things - like the insulin - are even made in labs, a further step away from many common definitions of the word "natural."

My favorite book dealing with the natural vs. unnatural debates as they relate to food is sociologist Barry Glasner's The Gospel of Food, which discusses, among other things, just how strange and often illogical the laws over what can be called "natural flavoring" and "natural colorings" are, and how food companies often capitalize on the word "natural" to sell food that is more expensive and no healthier than similar products on the market.

What do you think "natural" means? Is it a meaningful designation? Should we come up with a more precise definition, or keep it off food labels entirely?