Drink Up

Booze ads don't affect how much you drink says University of Texas professor

Recent legislation in cities like Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco has banned alcohol ads in certain instances. However, important new research out of the University of Texas at Austin says that booze advertisements have little effect on overall alcohol consumption.

UT Austin advertising professor Gary Wilcox examined the relationship between alcohol advertising and total consumption of beer, liquor and wine in a new study published in the International Journal of Advertising. Wilcox and Ph.D. candidates Eun Yeon Kang and Lindsay Chilek found that there was, at best, a weak relationship between the two.

Advertising was more focused on particular brands fighting for market share, the study notes.

“You can only put so much liquid in the stomach, so to speak,” Wilcox says. “Since the market’s not increasing, the different brands or categories of alcohol are trying to slice up the market and get a bigger share.”

The researchers looked at per capita sales of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. between 1971 and 2011 and found that in that span, per capita consumption stayed relatively constant. The changes were in how people consumed different types of alcohol.

“Beer has been on a 10-year decline, and the reasons for that I don’t know,” Wilcox says. “You can’t figure everything out, but we looked at if advertising had a role, and it didn't.

“Spirits are up, and wine has kind of gone up and down. It follows people’s preferences and what they choose to drink — the changing tastes of society.”

In that same 40-year span, spending on advertising has increased 400 percent. Wilcox says that the study can help show that bans on advertising won’t curb consumption. So far, Los Angeles and Philadelphia prohibit alcohol advertising on municipal property, and San Francisco prohibits ads on public transportation.

“Why would you ban it?” he says. “If you’re trying to reduce consumption, a ban might not be the most effective route. Free speech is an important part of this thing, too.

“If you’re banning a truthful message about a legal product then I generally say that’s not a good idea either; it seems more intuitive to increase communication so we can make autonomous choices.”

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Asian Food News

Taste of Malaysia restaurant brings rare Asian cuisine to Dallas area

Taste of Malaysia

A new restaurant has debuted in Coppell with a cuisine that's relatively rare in Dallas. Called Taste of Malaysia, it's now open at 3001 Olympus Blvd #130, at the Sound at Cypress Waters, between an Ari's Italian market and a Kilwin's ice cream shop, where it's serving authentic Malaysian dishes and flavors — adding another option to Dallas' burgeoning Asian restaurant scene.

A neighbor to Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, Malaysia has been described as having some of the best street food in Southeast Asia, boasting a mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and indigenous flavors. Signature dishes include satays — skewered meats — plus vividly spiced soups and rice dishes.

The country's national dish is nasi lemak, a beloved comfort food originally devised as a breakfast staple, featuring fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk with pandan leaves, sometimes enhanced with boiled egg and sliced cucumber and ikan bilis, i.e. anchovies.

Coming in at a close second is laksa, a spicy noodle soup made with rice noodles or egg noodles in a broth flavored with aromatic spices, shrimp paste, and coconut milk or tamarind.

These are the dishes that natives of Malaysia and fans of Malaysian food crave, says Shiva Nair, part of the team, along with his wife, Vsruti "Vish" Nair, that opened Taste of Malaysia.

Shiva has more than 20 years in the hospitality business including managing hotels and running other restaurants.

"There are a lot of Malaysians here in Dallas-Fort Worth but not many Malaysian restaurants," Shiva says. "That's what gave us the idea to open this."

Their menu features seven varieties of nasi lemak — including vegetable curry, chicken curry, slow cooked beef, slow-cooked chicken, fried chicken, fish, and spicy shrimp — all made with coconut rice, peanuts, boiled egg, and cucumber.

They also have fried rice, noodle dishes, satay chicken skewers, spring rolls, a samosa-style pastry with potatoes and vegetables called karipap, and a chicken "kutlet" — a breaded patty with minced chicken enclosed in a crunchy crust.

All of their meat is halal, meaning that the animals are raised and butchered in accordance with Islamic guidelines — a growing trend in Dallas-Fort Worth.

There's a full bar and the ultimate lure for timid diners: a lunchtime buffet, $18 on weekdays and $20 on weekends, with 15 to 20 dishes, with chicken, shrimp, fish, and vegetarian and vegan options, which are plentiful in Malaysian cuisine.

"We serve the buffet only at lunch, so that those who are unfamiliar with the cuisine can sample every dish," Shiva says.

"We saw an opportunity to bring Malaysian flavors to North Texas, a region hungry for authentic, halal-certified Asian food with real spicing and real heritage," he says.

openings coppell asian cuisine